^' 


^^offmciffy 


Logical  se<*\5J^ 


BV  230  .M3 

1872 

^ 

Maurice ,  Frederick 

Denison, 

1805-1872 

The  Lord's 

prayer 

The  LORD'S  Prayer 


NINE   SERMONS  PREACHED  IN   THE 
CHAPEL  OF  LINCOLN'S  INN 


BY 

FREDERICK  DENISON  ilAURICE 

LATE  PE0FE880E  OP   CASUISTRY  AND  MORAL  PHILOSOPHT   IN  THE 
UNIYEaSIZT   or  CAMBBISOE 


NEW   YORK 
PUBLISHED  BY  HURD  AND    HOUGHTON 

1872 


RIVERSIDE,  cambripob: 

ST  tl  KEOT  YPSD    AND     P  R  I  N  T  K  D     BT 
H.   0.   HOUGerON   AND   COMPANY. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


Mr.  Maurice,  whose  discourses  on  the 
Lord's  Prayer  are  given  in  this  volume,  died 
in  London,  April  1,  1872.  His  life  and  his 
writings  hav^  been  sources  of  strength  to  » 
generation  of  EngUshmen,  and  his  death  has 
called  forth  the  affectionate  utterance  of  sin- 
cere mourners.  His  writings  have  been  read 
each  year  with  increasing  interest  in  Amer- 
ica ;  and  while  some  of  them  are  local  in 
their  application  and  temporary  in  their  in- 
terest, many  more  are  of  general  service  and 
valuable  not  only  to  professional  students 
here,  but  to  those  belonging  to  that  large 
class  of  men  and  women  outside  of  the  min- 
isterial profession,  who  are  profoundly  con- 
cerned in  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  in  the- 
ological discussion.  Mr.  Maurice's  writings, 
however,  are  rather  helps  to  the  student  in 
theology,  than  direct  contributions   to   that 


iv  AD  VER  TISEMENT. 

science.  The  leading  characteristic  of  them 
is  the  use  of  spiritual  truths  in  the  solution 
of  problems  of  life,  whether  those  problems 
are  stated  in  terms  of  politics,  religious  and 
social  observance,  or  morals.  Indeed  nothing 
impresses  one  more  in  reading  the  writings 
of  this  man,  than  the  absence  of  customary 
boundary  lines  in  thought.  He  has  one  not 
method  for  the  investigation  of  scientific 
questions  and  another  for  casuistry ;  he  does 
not  regard  politics  and  religion  as  independ- 
ent and  separate  provinces  of  thought  and 
action  ;  and  therefore  it  is  that  in  preach- 
ing to  Englishmen  he  speaks  to  English- 
men, and  not  distinctively  to  members  of 
the  Church  of  England,  any  more  than  he 
would,  if  addressing  a  political  gathering, 
speak  to  voters.  Therefore  it  is  also  that 
his  labors  amongst  working  men  always  had 
a  power  springing  from  his  recognition  of 
them  as  a  constituent  part  of  the  State,  and 
not  as  members  of  a  social  class. 

To  speak  briefly,  Mr.  Maurice  shows  in 
his  writing  a  constant  desire  to  get  at  the 
broad,  fundamental  experience  of  humanity, 
lie   recognizes   social   and  religious   differ- 


A  D  VKR  T I  SEMEN  T.  V 

ences  in  men  only  to  point  out  more  clearly 
the  real  likeness.  What  he  has  to  say  is 
said  to  his  brethren ;  and  exclusiveness, 
whether  in  religion  or  society  seems  to  him 
the  gravest  peril  of  Church  or  State.  The 
practical  temper  of  his  mind  led  him  to  put 
his  work  into  action  rather  than  into  litera- 
ture. His  books  are  tracts  generally,  rather 
than  treatises,  suggested  by  immediate 
needs,  yet  always  bottomed  on  large,  com- 
prehensive principles.  He  is  careless  of  mere 
scholastic  distinctions  ;  he  ^vrites  to  get  at 
the  heart  of  things.  He  uses  literature  for  an 
end,  and  does  not  make  an  end  of  literature 
itseK.  One  begins  to  read  his  ^vritings  with 
the  expectation  of  finding  eventually  some 
definite  system  of  thought  to  which  they 
may  be  referred,  but  discovers  at  last  that 
Mr.  Maurice  is  not  a  systematic  theologian ; 
that  he  has  positive  coni-iction,  a  determi- 
nate faith,  but  has  never  formally  abstracted 
it  from  its  place  as  a  motive  power  and  given 
it  a  dogmatic  shape.  The  personality  of 
the  man,  hopeful  and  solemn,  large  and  can- 
did, yet  sometimes  sarcastic  and  slightly 
contemptuous,  is  impressed  upon  his  writing, 


vi  AD  VER  TISEMENT. 

and  must  have  been  a  strong  influence  in 
the  society  which  surrounded  him.  He  has 
been  the  cause  of  much  thought  in  others, 
and  it  may  fairly  be  expected  that  his  in- 
fluence through  his  writings  will  continue 
to  be  felt  both  in  America  and  in  England. 

The  incidents  of  his  life  are  easily  summed 
up.  John  Frederick  Denison  Maurice  was 
born  in  1805.  His  father  was  a  Unitarian 
minister,  whose  character  seems  to  have  been 
cast  somewhat  in  the  mould  in  which  the 
son's  was  formed.  Maurice  was  a  student 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  where  his 
tutor  was  Julius  Hare,  and  his  bosom  friend 
was  John  Sterling.  He  did  not  take  his 
degree,  from  conscientious  scruples  against 
signing  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  went 
up  to  London,  where  he  engaged  in  literary 
pursuits  in  company  with  Sterling.  The 
"  Athenaeum "  was  mainly  conducted  by 
them  for  a  year  and  a  half.  Of  Maurice's 
influence  on  Sterling,  Sterling  himself  writes : 
"  Of  what  good  you  have  found  in  the  '  Ath- 
enaeum,' by  far  the  larger  part  is  attributable 
to  Maurice.  When  I  have  done  any  good,  I 
have  seldom  been  more  than  a  patch  of  sand 


ADV£R  TISEMEN  T.  vii 

to  receive  and  retain  the  impression  of  his 
footsteps."  It  has  been  remarked  by  an 
American  scholar  that  there  were  two  Eng- 
lishmen who  might  have  written  history  to 
some  purpose,  De  Quincey  and  Maurice  ; 
and  the  London  "  Athenaeum,"  in  noticing 
this  period  of  Maurice's  activity,  writes: 
*'  Had  Mr.  Maurice  finally  resolved  to  abide 
in  Uterature  as  his  calling,  he  would  have  been 
the  author  of  many  rich  suggestions  and  dis- 
coveries in  the  fields  of  criticism  and  history, 
and  the  world  might  have  found  in  him  a  sec- 
ond Erasmus,  but  with  a  courage  and  faith 
and  passionate  devotion  to  truth,  which  are 
conspicuous  by  their  absence  in  the  first  one." 
But  Mr.  Maurice  had  the  genius  of  a  pro- 
found worker  in  him  more  emphatically 
than  of  a  writer,  and  it  was  in  the  minis- 
try that  he  saw  his  most  efficient  working- 
place.  He  entered  the  Church,  taking  his 
degree  at  Oxford,  and  thenceforward  his 
work  was  within  its  pale,  though  he  refused 
to  accept  the  interpretation  of  the  Church 
and  its  belief  which  were  held  by  many  of 
the  Doctors  of  the  Church.  The  school  of 
thinking  in  which  he  would  be  placed   re- 


viii  AD  VER  TISEMEN  T. 

ceived  its  special  foundation  from  Dr.  Ar- 
nold ;  and  of  those  with  whom  he  may  be 
classed,  Robertson,  the  brothers  Hare,  Ten- 
nyson, and  Charles  Kingsley  are  the  most 
notable.  He  was  successively  chaplain  of 
Guy's  Hospital,  chaplain  of  Lincohi's  Inn, 
Incumbent  of  St.  Peter's,  Vere  Street,  and 
at  the  time  of  his  death  held  the  chair  of 
Casuistry  and  Moral  Philosophy  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge.  He  was  also  at  one 
time  Professor  of  Divinity  in  King's  Col- 
lege, London,  but  was  driven  from  his  place 
by  the  theological  opposition  of  the  authori- 
ties. Much  of  his  work  was  in  connection 
with  the  Working-men's  College  of  London ; 
and  an  interesting  painting  by  Ford  Madox 
Brown,  entitled  "  Work,"  has  for  its  repre- 
sentative figures  Carlyle  and  Maurice. 

His  writings  illustrate  the  leading  inter- 
ests of  his  life,  for  they  may  all  be  said  to 
be  instruments  which  he  handled  for  direct 
and  specific  purposes,  not  containing  the  end 
in  themselves.  Amongst  his  Biblical  works 
are  "  The  Patriarchs  and  Lawgivers  of  the 
Old  Testament,"  "  The  Prophets  and  Kings 
of  the  Old  Testament,"  "  The  Unity  of  the 


AD  VER  TISMEEN  T.  { X 

New  Testament,"  ''  The  Gospel  of  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,"  "Lectures  on  St.  Luke''" 
'^  The  Gospel  of   St.  John,"  -  The  Epistles 
of  St.  John,"  and  "  Lectures  on  the  Apoca- 
lypse."     Amongst   his  philosophical  works 
are  "Moral  and  Metaphysical  Philosophy," 
'^The    Conscience,"     "Social    Morality." 
Such  works  also  as  his  discourses  "  On  the 
Lord's  Prayer,"  "  The  Commandments  con- 
sidered as  Instruments  of  National  Refor- 
mation," -  The  Claims  of  the  Bible  and  of 
Science,"  -  Dialogue  on  Family  Worship," 
''  On  the  Sabbath  Day,"  and    -  Learninc. 
and  Working,"  mark,  iis  indeed  do  also  the 
others  mentioned,  his  constant  endeavor  to 
bring  the  widest  and  most  lasting  principles 
mto  immediate    connection  with   practical 
living. 

The  London  "Spectator,"  which  ha^  of 
late  been  the  usual  medium  for  the  presen- 
tation of  views  by  Mr.  Maurice  and  those 
of  like  tliinking  gives  in  its  issue  following 
his  death  an  affectionate  and  interesting 
panegyric,  too  refined  perhaps  in  judgment 
for  so  prompt  an  account  of  the  writer's 
master  and  friend,  but  to  be  taken  as  evi- 


AD  VER  TJSEMENT, 


(lencing  the  depth  of  personal  feeling  which 
Mr.  Maurice's  death  has  stirred  in  English 
circles.    It  is  here  given  complete. 


In  Frederick  Denison  Maurice,  England 
has  lost  one  of  her  most  striking  and  char- 
acteristic figures,  and  a  not  inconsiderable 
number  of  Englishmen  one  of  those  unique 
friends  in  whose  sight  men  are  apt  to  Kve 
as  in  the  sight  of  a  visibly  higher  nature 
not  so  remote  from  their  own  circumstances 
but  that  it  is  possible  for  them  to  conceive 
distinctly  his  judgments,  and  to  forecast 
the  tendency  of  his  sympathies  even  when 
direct  intercourse  is  impossible.  George 
Eliot,  in  the  last  published  part  of  her  new 
tale,  quotes  some  old  author  who  said  when 
his  chief  friend  died,  ''The  theatre  of  all 
my  actions  is  fallen;"  and  the  novelist  adds, 
that  a  great  many  strong  men  "hold  half 
their  rectitude  in  the  mind  of  the  being 
they  love  best."  It  would,  perhaps,  be 
truer  to  say  that  they  hold  half  their  recti- 
tude in  the  mind  of  the  being  they  revere 
most,  for  there  is  plenty  of  love  which  has 
little  relation  to  reverence,  and  which  does 


ADVERTISEMENT.  XI 

not  equally  affect  the  secret  standard  of  hu- 
man action.  At  all  events,  though  it  might 
have  pained  Mr.  Maurice  to  think  so,  there 
was  perhaps  no  other  man  in  England  who 
was,  in  this  sense,  ''  the  theatre "  of  so 
many  men's  actions  as  himself ;  for  since 
Dr.  Newman's  conversion,  his  certainly  was 
the  most  real  of  the  higher  and  purer  relig- 
ious influences  of  our  own  day  to  Englisli 
Protestants  ;  he  was  the  man  recognized  by 
almost  all  who  knew  him,  as  combining 
most  clearly  spiritual  principles  which  dis- 
o^vned  all  compromise  -svith  skepticism,  and 
intellectual  principles  which  disowned  all 
compromise  Avith  bigotry  or  superstition,  — 
as  combining  in  their  highest  forms  trust 
and  love.  Nor  was  his  influence  the  less, 
but  perhaps  the  more,  that  his  meaning  was 
not  always  veiy  well  apprehended ;  for  the 
want  of  apprehension  was  often  felt  to  be, 
and  sometimes  known  to  be,  a  mere  evi- 
dence that  the  thought  of  the  speaker  had 
its  spring  in  a  region  quite  above  the  mind 
of  the  hearer.  There  was  such  a  mingled 
simplicity  and  depth  of  feeling  in  all  he 
said,  such  a  union  of  sweetness  and  severity. 


xii  AD  VER  Tl  SEMEN  T. 

SO  deep  a  humility  and  so  lofty  a  conviction, 
so  passionate  an  irony  and  so  pathetic  a 
faith,  that  his  voice,  once  heard,  continued 
to  sound  in  the  ears  of  those  who  had  not 
for  long  stretches  of  time  been  within  its 
reach,  and  seemed  more  like  the  instrument 
of  a  message  from  the  invisible  world  than 
any  other  voice  of  our  generation.  It  was 
impossible  to  hear  Mr.  Maurice  read  the 
prayers,  even  in  a  Lincoln's  Inn  early 
morning  chapel,  without  feehng  that  to  liim 
they  bore  a  far  more  real  and  living  mea 
ing  than  to  the  ordinary  user  of  them. 
There  was  intensity  —  almost  too  thrilling 
—  and  something,  too,  of  sad  exultation  in 
every  tone,  as  if  the  reader  were  rehearsing 
a  story  in  which  he  had  no  part  except  his 
personal  certainty  of  its  truth,  his  gratitude 
that  it  should  be  true,  and  his  humiliation 
that  it  had  fallen  to  such  lips  as  his  to  de- 
clare it.  This  was  what  made  his  charac- 
ter present  itself  so  strongly  to  the  mind  as 
almost  embodied  in  a  voice.  He  seemed  to 
be  the  channel  for  a  communication,  not 
the  source  of  it.  There  was  a  gentle  hurry, 
and  yet  a  peremptoriness,  in  those  at  once 


AD  VER  Tl  SEMEN  T.  xili 

sad  and  sonorous  tones,  which  spoke  of 
haste  to  tell  their  tale,  and  of  actual  fear  of 
*  not  tellmg  it  with  sufficient  emphasis  and 
force.  "  They  hurried  on  as  if  impatient 
to  fulfill  their  mission."  They  seemed  put 
into  his  mouth,  while  he,  "wdth  his  whole 
soul  bent  on  their  wonderful  drift,  uttered 
them  as  an  awe-struck  but  thankful  envoy 
tells  the  tale  of  danger  and  dehverance. 
Yet  though  Mr.  Maurice's  voice  seemed  to 
be  the  essential  part  of  him  as  a  religious 
teacher,  his  face,  if  you  ever  looked  at  it, 
was  quite  in  keeping  witli  his  voice.  His 
eye  was  full  of  sweetness,  but  fixed,  and, 
as  it  were,  fascinated  on  some  ideal  point. 
His  countenance  expressed  nervous,  high- 
strung  tension,  as  though  all  the  various 
play  of  feelings  in  ordinary  human  nature 
converged,  in  him,  towards  a  single  focus, 
the  declaration  of  the  divine  purpose.  Yet 
this  tension,  this  peremptoriness,  this  con- 
vergence of  his  whole  nature  on  a  single 
point,  never  gave  the  effect  of  a  dictatorial 
air  for  a  moment.  There  was  a  quiver  in 
his  voice,  a  tremulousness  in  the  strong 
deep  lines  of   his  face,  a  tenderness  in  his 


iiv  AD  VER  T I  SEMEN  T. 

eye,  which  assured  you  at  once  that  noth- 
ing of  the  hard,  crystallizing  character  of  a 
dogmatic  belief  in  the  Absolute  had  con- 
quered his  heart ;  and  most  men  recognized 
this,  for  the  hardest  and  most  business-like 
voices  took  a  tender  and  abnost  caressing 
tone  in  addressing  him.  The  more  he  be- 
lieved in  Christ,  the  less  he  confounded  him- 
self with  the  object  of  his  belief,  and  the 
more  pathetic  was  his  self-distrust  of  his 
orwYL  power  to  see  aright,  or  say  aright  what 
he  saw.  The  only  fault,  as  most  of  his 
hearers  would  think,  of  his  manner,  was  the 
perfect  monotony  of  its  sweet  and  solemn 
intonation.  His  voice  was  the  most  mu- 
sical of  voices,  with  the  least  variety  and 
play.  His  mind  was  one  of  the  simplest, 
deepest,  humblest,  and  most  intense,  with 
the  least  range  of  illustration.  He  had  hu- 
mor and  irony,  —  usually  faculties  of  broad 
range, — but  with  him  they  moved  on  a 
single  line.  His  humor  and  irony  were 
ever  of  one  kind,  the  humor  and  irony 
which  dwell  perpetually  on  the  inconsisten- 
cies and  paradoxes  involved  in  the  contrast 
between  human  dreams   and    divine  pur- 


ADVERTISEMENT.  XV 

poses,  and  which  derive  only  a  kindlier  feel- 
ing for  the  former,  from  the  knowledge 
that  they  are  apparently  so  eager  to  come 
into  hard  collision  with  the  latter.  As  an 
intimate  friend  very  truly  remarked,  his 
irony  was  rather  the  irony  of  Isaiah  than 
the  irony  of  Sophocles  ;  but  it  was  gentler 
and  less  indignant.  The  most  bitter  flight 
of  irony  the  present  writer  recollects  is  a 
very  fine  passage  in  one  of  the  Lincoln's 
Inn  sermons,  on  wliicli  he  cannot  at  this 
moment  lay  his  luind,  wherein  Mr.  Maurice, 
speaking  of  the  travesty  whicli  the  popular 
theology  makes  of  Revelation,  in  that  it 
starts  from  the  fundamental  assumption  of 
original  sin  rather  than  from  God,  sug- 
gested the  clauses  of  an  imaginary  Te  Dia- 
bolum  Laudamus,  in  honor  and  propitiation 
of  the  powers  of  darkness,  as  the  psalm, 
which,  if  it  only  rightly  knew  itself,  it 
ought  to  substitute  for  the  great  song  of 
Christian  thankfulness.  It  could  not  but 
have  suggested  to  many  who  heard  it 
Isaiah's  grim  irony  against  the  idolators 
who,  after  using  some  of  their  timber  to 
cook  their  dinner,  "with  the  residue  thereof 


xvi  AD  VER  TISEMEN  T. 

made  them  a  god."  But  Mr. '  Maurice's 
irony  was  not  often  so  keen.  Generally  it 
was  mixed  with  sweetness,  and  almost 
always  double-edged,  —  with  one  edge  for 
himself  and  only  one  for  his  opponent. 
Sometimes,  perhaps,  he  a  little  overdid  the 
irony  intended  to  be  at  his  own  expense. 
He  was  not  insensible  to  the  pleasure  which 
some  men  find  in  underrating  their  own  in- 
fluence and  power.  When  he  assures  the 
imaginary  undergraduate  of  the  prefatory 
dialogue  to  the  new  edition  —  which  has 
only  appeared  since  his  death  —  of  his 
"  Moral  and  Metaphysical  Philosophy," 
that  even  if  he  had  rewritten  it  as  he  had 
been  tempted  to  do,  and  had  done  once 
already,  he  should  probably  not  have  added 
a  single  reader  "  to  the  two  or  three  who 
have  been  rash  enough  to  spend  their  eyes 
upon  it ;  "  and,  moreover,  that  if  he  had 
rewritten  it,  he  should  not  have  introduced 
"  one  question  which  would  be  likely  to  be 
put  by  a  judicious  examiner,  or  one  answer 
which  a  pupil  could  turn  to  any  account," 
he  is  not  merely  having  a  sharp  thrust  at 
the  technical   character  of   the  University- 


AD  VER  T/SEMEA  T.  xvii 

examination  system,  but  indulging  a  So- 
cratic  taste  for  making  sport  of  his  own  ut- 
ter want  of  relation  to  the  existing  fashions 
and  demands  of  the  day,  —  a  taste  which 
he  sometimes  carried  to  excess.  His  humil- 
ity was  as  sincere  as  it  was  profound  ;  but 
he  seems  to  us  to  have  derived  something 
of  fresh  assurance  for  the  great  truths  of 
which  he  was  most  sure,  through  unduly 
exaggerating  the  extent  of  his  o^^^l  personal 
short-comings  in  setting  them  forth.  It 
need  hardly  be  said  that  no  work  on  such 
a  theme  as  the  history  of  moral  and  meta- 
physical philosophy,  —  or  indeed  on  any  of 
Mr.  Maurice's  favorite  subjects,  of  which  a 
second  edition  was  called  for,  and  almost 
all  his  best  books  reached  a  second  edi- 
tion, —  c^n  have  been  very  unsuccessful. 
Hardly  any  other  theologian  of  the  day 
who  did  such  profound  and  solid  work  in 
mastering  the  details  of  an  unpopular  sub- 
ject, would  have  had  to  meet  the  demand 
for  a  second  edition  at  all. 

It  is  not  difficult,  even  in  the  short  space 
at  our  command,  to  give  some  notion  of  the 
principles   of   Mr,  Maurice's  theology ;  for 


X  viii  AD  VER  TISEMEN  T. 

though  he  had  a  deep,  almost  a  morbid 
dread  of  "  system,"  in  connection  both  with 
theology  and  philosophy,  his  was  essentially 
a  theology  of  principles,  and  of  principles 
not  difficult  to  describe.  The  "  Guardian," 
in  a  thoughtful  note  upon  the  death  .of  Mr. 
Maurice,  has  said  of  him  very  truly  that  he 
was  "  incapable  from  first  to  last  of  accept- 
ing words  as  an  exact  measure  of  thought;" 
and  if  the  writer  had  added  that  he  was 
quite  as  incapable  of  accepting  thoughts  as 
an  exact  measure  of  either  things  or  per- 
sons, he  would  have  touched  on  the  very 
secret  of  Mr.  Maurice's  dread  of  system. 
The  truth  is,  that  while  he  regarded  words 
—  especially  old  words  with  a  history  — 
with  the  greatest  reverence,  as  fixed  buoys 
indicating,  as  it  were,  the  site  of  eddies  or 
the  set  of  currents  of  thought,  without  a 
knowledge  of  which  the  mind  would  be 
helpless,  he  regarded  the  currents  of  thought 
themselves  as  mere  indications,  more  or  less 
adequate,  of  the  presence  of  living  influ- 
ences and  powers,  of  any  exhaustive  compre- 
hension of  which  there  was  little  chance, 
though  there  was  the  greatest  possible  dan- 


AB  VER  T J  SEMEN  T.  xii 

ger  of  our  persuading  ourselves  that  we  had 
achieved  it.  Hence,  while  no  thinker  of 
our  day  was  more  conservative  in  his  re- 
spect for  the  old  landmarks  of  philosophic 
investigation,  none  was  so  severe  on  those 
who  imagined  that  by  clearly  defining  these 
landmarks,  theology  and  philosophy  could 
be  adequately  mapped  out.  He  held  all 
names  which  had  got  deep  root  in  any  hu- 
man language  to  be  indications  of  some 
centnd  thoughts  which  it  was  of  the  first 
importance  to  enter  into,  and  all  such 
thoughts  to  be  indications  of  some  living, 
permanent,  and  divine  influence,  which  it 
was  also  of  the  first  importance  to  recognize 
as  wholly  independent  of  our  thinking 
power :  so  that  philosophy  to  him  was 
rather  like  a  star-map  with  many  bright 
points  distributed  amidst  great  tracts  of 
darkness,  and  distributed  in  a  manner  for 
which  we  can  hardly  find  a  law,  and  must 
be  very  careful  not  to  invent  one  ;  while 
theology  was  to  him  God's  partial  answer 
to  the  search  for  truth,  —  not  complete  or 
systematic,  which  would  be  impossible  con- 
sidering the  capacities  of  the  minds  which 


XX  AD  VERTISEMENT. 

require  it,  —  but  confirming  and  confirmed 
by  our  intellectual  constitution.  He  be- 
lieved that  God  had  revealed  Himself  as 
the  central  good  and  the  central  power; 
that  He  had  created  all  things  with  refer- 
ence to  that  central  good,  and  with  hfe 
deriving  from  it ;  that  freedom  had  brought 
evil  into  both  the  world  of  spirits  and  the 
world  of  matter ;  and  yet  that  through  evil, 
freedom,  taught  by  God,  would  find  its  way 
to  greater  good  than  any  it  could  have 
known  without  conflict ;  —  (Mr.  Maurice, 
in  his  profound  devotion  to  the  strictly  the- 
ological mode  of  thought,  though  he  fought 
hard  for  spiritual  freedom  and  believed  in 
it,  and  had  far  too  great  a  horror  of  system 
to  admit  that  sin  must  either  be  independ- 
ent of  God  or  an  accepted  instrument  of 
God's,  always  seemed  to  lean  perceptibly 
towards  the  faith  which  at  all  events  sub- 
ordinates both  freedom  and  evil  to  the 
divine  purpose;)  further  he  held  that  all 
which  is  good  in  man  has  been  revealed  to 
be  a  mere  pale  shadow  of  something  infi- 
nitely better  in  the  life  of  God ;  that  love, 
which  is  of  the  divine  essence,  had  a  divine 


AD  VER  TISEMENT.  jol 

object  "  before  all  worlds  ;  "  that  revelation 
has  shown  what  that  object  was  in  display- 
ing a  divine  Father  and  Son  united  in  one 
Spirit ;  and  that  it  illuminated  the  whole 
universe  in  bringing  down  to  earth  the 
divine  spirit  of  victorious  sacrifice  in  Christ's 
incarnation,  Hfe,  death,  and  resurrection. 
Mr.  Maurice  believed  that  there  was  hardly 
a  corner  of  man's  nature  or  history  on  which 
these  revealed  facts  did  not  shed  a  bright, 
though  often  unequal  light.  He  held  Eter- 
nity itself  to  be  apprehended  in  the  appre- 
hension of  them ;  for  to  him  Eternity  and 
Time  were  not  distinguished  as  disembodied 
Hfe  is  distinguished  from  embodied,  but 
were  distinguished  as  spiritual  life  —  here 
or  there  —  is  distinguished  from  carnal  life 
here  or  there  ;  and  he  who  knew  God  lived 
in  eternity  even  while  dwelling  here.  He 
was  fond  even  of  regarding  the  successes  of 
modern  science  as  the  triumph  of  the  spir- 
itual principle  of  humility,  which,  instead 
of  imposing  our  thoughts  and  notions  on  the 
divine  order,  studied  that  order  as  a  revela- 
tion running  in  a  lower  plane  indeed,  but 
still  in  perfect  parallelism  with  the  divine 


jj-ii  ADVERTISEMENT. 

revelation  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth. 
The  natural  philosopher's  horror  of  precon- 
ceived exhaustive  systems,  Mr.  Maurice 
carried  into  moral  and  spiritual  philosophy, 
never  admitting  that  any  portion  of  our  na- 
ture was  exhaustively  known,  though  harp- 
ing perpetually  on  the  certainty  that  it  is 
the  subject  of  a  redeeming  power  that 
streams  into  it  from  above. 

The  most   difficult  matter  to  understand 
in  Mr.  Maurice's  theology  was  his  concep- 
tion of   the  evidence  of  revelation.     As  to 
the  higher  truths,  he  held  apparently,  and 
no  doubt  truly,  that  they  were  and  must  be 
their  own  evidence,  when  once  fairly  pre- 
sented to  the  conscience.     Theoretically  he 
held  that  all  inspiration  was  subject  to  hu- 
man conditions,  and  therefore  that  its  rec- 
ords are  liable  to  error ;  but  he  was  so  apt 
to  find  deep  truth  in  paradox  and  inconsist- 
ency of  the  deeper  kind,  that  he  found  it 
very  difficult  to   admit   error  in  the   most 
obvious  discrepancies  and  inconsistencies  of 
the  minor  kind.     Usually  he  was  thankful 
for  these,  as  pointing  to  something  deeper, 
though  perhaps   almost  only  a  guess,  be- 


AD  VER  T IS  EM  EN  T.  xxiii 

yond.  He  was  always  so  much  on  his 
guard  against  even  desiring  perfect  consist- 
ency in  human  thought,  that  he  was  un- 
naturally thankful  for  difficulties  of  all 
kinds,  —  sometimes  almost  seeming  to  go 
tlie  length  of  finding  in  difficulties  a  fresh 
evidence  of  truth.  The  present  writer  can 
remember  but  one  instance  in  which  he 
could  ever  bring  Mr.  Maurice  to  admit  that 
there  was  a  difficulty  in  Scripture  which  did 
not  point  to  some  deeper  secret  of  harmony, 
and  that  was  the  curious  interpretation  at- 
tributed by  St.  ^latthew  alone  to  our  Lord, 
of  the  saying,  that  as  Jonah  was  a  sign  to 
the  Ninevites,  so  was  the  Son  of  Man  a  sign 
to  tliat  generation.  But  even  then,  though 
Mr.  Maurice  admitted  that  he  could  not 
"  understand  "  the  analogy  between  Jonah's 
three  days'  burial  in  the  fish  and  our  Lord's 
three  days'  burial  in  the  heart  of  the  earth, 
he  would  not  admit  that  he  believed  the 
evangelist  to  have  made  a  mistake,  and  to 
have  attributed  a  fanciful  analogy  of  his 
own  to  his  master.  Indeed,  he  found  so 
much  that  was  in  the  highest  degree  in- 
structive in   the  very  aspects  of  Scripture 


xxiv  ADVERTISEMENT. 

that  rationalistic  critics  had  fixed  upon  as 
embodying  conspicuous  error,  that  he  shrank 
painfully  from  admitting  an  error,  even 
where  he  was  quite  unable  to  find  a  truth. 
Of  most  of  the  difficulties  of  the  Bible  he 
would  say,  that  even  though  he  could  not 
understand  them,  they  had  greatly  helped 
him  to  understand  himself. 

And  this  great  passion  of  humility  was  in 
him  not  only  a  moral  habit,  and  a  principle 
of  exegetical  interpretation,  and  a  doctrine 
conservative  of  most  historical  institutions 
(he  often  seemed  to  his  friends  to  find  some- 
thing divinely  vital  in  what  they  thought 
the  mere  lingering  shadows  of  the  past,  and 
often,  no  doubt,  he  was  right  and  they  were 
wrong),  but  also  a  wonderful  spring  of  prac- 
tical fascination.  In  one  of  the  preliminary 
meetings  held  before  the  commencement 
of  the  Christian  Socialist  movement  to  dis- 
cuss Avith  London  operatives  the  scandals 
of  the  existing  Trade  system  and  its  reme- 
dies, one  of  the  great  unwashed  delivered 
his  mind  so  freely  and  coarsely  on  the  im- 
postures of  the  clergy  and  the  hopelessness 
of  getting  any  good  from  their  interference, 


AD  VER  TISEMEN  T.  xxv 

that  some  of  the  hot  Oxonians  who  started 
the  movement  were  concerting  the  forcible 
ejection  of  the  speaker  from  the  meeting. 
But  Mr.  Maurice,  who  was  in  the  chair,  met 
the  speaker  by  confessing  at  once  that  his 
observations  were  only  too  well  deserved  by 
himself  and  the  order  he  attacked  ;  that  no 
one  could  be  more  conscious  of  the  practical 
inconsistencies  of  which  they  were  but  too 
frequently  guilty,  —  only  that,  he  said,  was 
no  reason  for  not  trying,  with  the  help  of 
those  for  whom  they  worked,  to  sweep  away 
some  of  those  inconsistencies,  and  restore  a 
truer  relation.  The  effect  of  tliis  practical 
appHcation  of  Christ's  exhortation  to  sur- 
render the  cloak  to  one  who  had  already 
stripped  him  of  his  coat,  was  remarkable  ; 
and  the  speaker  who  had  attacked  him  so 
coarsely  frequently  afterwards  attended  even 
the  purely  religious  meetings  which  Mr. 
Maurice  held,  and  though  never  a  complete 
convert,  became  one  of  the  most  wistful  of 
the  outer  circle  of  his  well-wishers.  The 
personal  sacrifices  which  Mr.  Maurice  made 
for  the  Working-men's  College  in  Great  Or- 
mpnd  Street  were  great,  but  there  was  none 


XX  vi  ^  ^  VEE  T I  SEMEN  T. 

of  his  great  qualities  which  did  so  much  for 
the  movement  as  the  unfathomable  depth  of 
his  personal  humility. 

And  his  tastes  were  in  singularly  close 
keeping  with  his  faith.  No  one  can  read  his 
works  without  noticing  his  intense  enjoy- 
ment of  the  style  which  makes  the  plainest 
and  simplest  matters  of  life  grand  by  tracing 
them  direct  to  God.  Of  course  the  great- 
est illustration  of  that  style  is  the  Bible,  but 
Cowper  and  Wordsworth  were  both  great 
masters  of  it,  and  with  Cowper  and  Words- 
worth Mr.  Maurice's  memory  was  richly 
stored.  He  was  cathoHc  enough  in  his  po- 
etic tastes,  and  would  illustrate  what  he  held 
to  be  the  true  meaning  of  the  word  "  eter- 
nal "  as  freely  from  Byron  as  from  St.  John. 
But  it  was  plways  to  the  poets  who  saw 
divinp  meaning  in  the  simplest  domestic  re- 
lations,—  who  were  "true  to  the  kindred 
points  of  heaven  and  home,"  —  that  his  im- 
agination most  affectionately  clung.  This 
was  not  indeed  a  taste  in  him,  but  a  faith,  — 
at  least  a  taste  moulded  by  a  deeper  faith. 
This  it  was  that  made  him  insensible  to  the 
admiration  of  religious  coteries,  and   kept 


AD  VER  TISKMEN  T.  xxvii 

him  perfectly  simple  amidst  those  flattering 
confidences  which  are  given  under  the  plea 
of  the  need  of  council,  and  which  yet  so 
much  oftener  change  the  counselor  than  the 
counseled.     And  his  whole  life  showed  this 
strong   unromantic   preference  for  common 
duties  as  the  true  embodiment  of  high  faiths. 
There    is    no   more    characteristic    sermon 
amongst  the  scores  he  has  published   than 
one  on  the  apparent  bathos  of  that  Collect 
for    Easter    Sunday   which    entreats    God, 
"  who   through  Christ  has  overcome  death, 
and  opened  to   us  the  gate  of   everlasting 
life,"  that,  "  as  by  his  special  grace  prevent- 
ing us.  He  has  put  into  our  minds  good  de- 
sires, so  by  his  continual  help  we  may  bring 
the  same  to  good  effect."     Mr.  Maurice  ad- 
mitted that   this   collect   had  often  grated 
harshly  on  him,  as  if  it  contained  but  a  poor 
logic,  and  drew  a  weak  conclusion  from   a 
great  recital ;  but  he  thought  so  no  longer, 
for  he  saw  in  it  the  assertion  that  it  is  only 
"  the  stooping  of  the  Creator  to  the  creat- 
ure "  which  can  save  from  death  our  best 
desires  before  they  reach  their  only  true  end 
in  action.   The  very  homeliness  of  the  prayer 


xxviii  ADVERTISEMENT. 

gave  it  to  him  a  greater  reality.  And  that 
was  the  lesson  of  liis  own  life  and  death.  No 
one  who  knew  him  doubted  that  it  was  the 
very  homeliness  of  his  life  and  teaching 
which  was  his  best  guarantee  that  he  had 
not  been  merely  dreaming  grand  dreams  of 
things  divine,  and  which  extinguished  the 
last  doubt  that  that  Easter  season —  in  which 
he  finally  brought  his  noble,  simple,  and  la- 
borious hfe  "  to  good  effect,"  —  was  indeed 
the  commemoration  of  an  event  by  which 
the  secret  of  eternity  had  been  unveiled. 


SERMON  I. 

SIXTH  SUNDAY  AFTER  THE  EPIPHANY. 


After  this  manner  therefore  pray  ye:  "  Our  Father 
WHICH  art  in  Heaven."  —  ^fntth(w  vi.  9. 

"  A  FTER  this  manner,"  and  therefore 
-^^  any  manner  but  tliis  is  a  wrong  man- 
ner ;  a  prayer  which  has  any  other  princi- 
ple or  method  than  this,  is  not  the  Lord's 
Prayer. 

The  remark  may  seem  superfluous,  but  it 
is  not  so.  The  Paternoster  is  not,  as  some 
fancy,  the  easiest,  most  natural,  of  all  de- 
vout utterances.  It  may  be  committed  to 
memory  quickly,  but  it  is  slowly  learnt  by 
heart.  Men  may  repeat  it  over  ten  times  in 
an  hour,  but  to  use  it  when  it  is  most  needed, 
to  know  what  it  means,  to  believe  it,  yea, 
not  to  contradict  it  in  the  very  act  of  pray- 
ing it,  not  to  construct  our  prayers  upon  a 
model  the  most  imlike  it  possible,  this  is 
hard  ;  this  is  one  of  the  highest  gifts  which 
1 


2  OUR  FATHER  [Serm. 

God  can  bestow  upon  us ;  nor  can  we  look 
to  receive  it  without  others  that  we  may 
wish  for  less  ;  sharp  suffering,  a  sense  of 
wanting  a  home,  a  despair  of  ourselves. 

At  certain  periods  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  especially  when  some  reformation 
was  at  hand,  men  have  exhibited  a  weari- 
ness of  their  ordinary  theological  teaching. 
It  seemed  to  them  that  they  needed  some- 
thing less  common,  more  refined  than  that 
which  they  possessed.  As  the  light  broke 
in  upon  them,  they  perceived  that  they 
needed  what  was  less  refined,  more  common. 
The  Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  were  found  to  contain  the 
treasures  for  which  they  were  seeking.  The 
signs  of  such  a  period  are  surely  to  be  seen 
in  our  day.  We  can  scarcely  think  that  we 
require  reformation  less  than  our  fathers.  I 
beheve,  if  we  are  to  obtain  it,  we  too  must 
turn  to  these  simple  documents ;  we  must 
inquire  whether  there  is  not  a  wisdom  hid- 
den in  them  which  we  do  not  meet  with 
elsewhere  ;  whether  they  cannot  interpret 
the  dream  of  our  lives  better  than  all  the 
soothsayers  whom  we  have  consulted  about 
it  hitherto. 

I.  Much  of  the  practical  difficulty  of  the 


I.]  WHICn  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  3 

prayer  lies  assuredly  in  the  first  word  of  it. 
How  can  we  look  round  upon  the  people 
whom  we  habitually  feel  to  be  separated 
from  us  by  almost  impassable  barriers  :  who 
are  above  us,  so  that  we  cannot  reach  them  ; 
or  so  far  beneath  us,  that  the  slightest  rec- 
ognition of  them  is  an  act  of  gracious  con- 
descension ;  upon  the  people  of  an  opposite 
faction  to  our  o^vn,  whom  we  denounce  as 
utterly  evil ;  upon  men  whom  we  have 
reason  to  despise  ;  upon  the  actual  -wrong- 
doers of  society,  those  who  have  made  them- 
selves vile,  and  are  helping  to  make  it  vile : 
and  then  t^ach  ourselves  to  think  that  in  the 
very  highest  exercise  of  our  lives,  these  are 
associated  ^vith  us  ;  that  when  we  pray,  we 
are  praying  for  them  and  with  them  ;  that 
we  cannot  speak  for  ourselves  without  speak- 
ing for  them  ;  that  if  we  do  not  carry  their 
sins  to  the  throne  of  God's  grace,  we  do  not 
carry  our  own  ;  that  all  the  good  we  hope 
to  obtain  there,  belongs  to  them  just  as 
much  as  to  us,  and  that  our  claim  to  it  is 
sure  of  being  rejected,  if  it  is  not  one  which 
is  valid  for  them  also  ?  Yet  all  this  is  in- 
cluded in  the  word  '^  Our  "  ;  till  we  have 
learnt  so  much,  we  are  but  spelling  at  it ; 
we  have  not  learnt  to  pronounce  it.     And 


4  OUR  FATHER  [Serm. 

what  man  of  us  —  the  aptest  scholar  of  all 
—  will  venture  to  say  that  he  has  yet  truly 
pronounced  it ;  that  his  clearest  utterance  of 
it  has  not  been  broken  and  stammering  ? 
Think  how  many  causes  are  at  work  every 
hour  of  our  lives  to  make  this  opening  word 
of  the  prayer  a  nullity  and  a  falsehood. 
How  many  petty  disagreements  are  there 
between  friends  and  kinsfolk,  people  dwell- 
ing in  the  same  house  —  so  petty  that  there  is 
no  fear  of  giving  way  to  them,  and  yet  great 
enough  to  cause  bitterness  and  estrange- 
ment, great  enough  to  make  this  "Our 
Father"  a  contradiction.  How  often  does 
my  vanity  come  into  collision  with  another 
man's  vanity,  and  then,  though  there  be  no 
palpable  opposition  of  interests  between  us, 
though  we  do  not  stand  in  the  way  of  each 
other's  advancement,  what  a  sense  of  separa- 
tion, of  inward  hostility,  follows !  As  the 
mere  legal,  formal,  distinctions  of  caste 
become  less  marked,  how  apt  are  men  to  in- 
demnify themselves  for  that  loss  by  drawing 
lines  of  their  own  as  deep,  and  more  arbi- 
trary !  As  persecution  in  its  ruder  shapes 
becomes  impossible,  what  revenge  does  the 
disputatious  heart  take  under  this  depriva- 
tion, by  bitter   manifestations  of  contempt 


I.]  WHICH  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  5 

for  an  adversary,  by  identifying  him  more 
completely  ^vith  his  opinions,  by  condemning 
him,  if  not  for  them,  then  for  the  vehemence 
and  bigotry  mth  which  he  supports  them ! 
How  many  pretexts  have  the  most  tolerant 
amongst  us  for  intolerance  !  How  skillful 
are  the  most  reHgious  in  finding  ways  for 
explaining  away  the  awful  command,  ''Judge 
not,  that  ye  be  not  judged !  " 

II.  But  when  we  say  "  Father,"  are  we 
more  in  earnest?  Do  we  mean  that  He 
whom  we  call  upon  is  a  Father  actually, 
not  in  some  imaginar^^  metaphorical  sense  ? 
Alas  !  in  stumbling  at  the  first  word,  "  Our," 
we  do,  I  fear,  destroy  the  next  also.  For 
though  all  countries  and  nations  had  a  dim 
vision  of  this  name  ;  though  men,  in  whom 
the  reverence  for  fathers  had  any  strength, 
were  taught  by  a  higher  wisdom  than  their 
o^vn  to  connect  that  reverence  with  their 
thoughts  of  the  unseen  world,  and  of  One 
who  ruled  it ;  though  the  sense  of  this  con- 
nection was  a  balance  to  the  tendency  which 
they  felt  to  idolize  the  powers  of  Nature, 
and  yet  kept  them  from  a  mere  abstract 
formal  notion  of  the  Divinity  ;  though  by  it 
they  learnt  to  reahze,  in  a  measure,  their 
own  spiritual  existence ;  yet  the  revelation 


6  OUR  FATHER  [Seem. 

which  fulfills  the  heathen  expectation,  which 
turns  the  dream  of  a  Father  into  substance, 
is  that  which  is  expressed  in  the  words, 
''  He  hath  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a 
woman,  made  mider  the  law,  that  we  might 
receive  the  adoption  of  sons,"  and  in  those 
which  are  inseparable  from  them,  ''  Because 
ye  are  sons.  He  hath  sent  the  Spirit  of  his 
Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father." 
Now  this  revelation  is  grounded  upon  an  act 
done  on  behalf  of  Humanity  —  an  act  in 
which  all  men  have  a  like  interest ;  for  if 
Christ  did  not  take  the  nature  of  every  rebel 
and  outcast,  he  did  not  take  the  nature  of 
Paul  and  John.  Therefore  the  first  sign 
that  the  Church  was  estabhshed  upon  earth 
in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son, 
and  the  Spirit,  was  one  which  showed  that 
it  was  to  consist  of  men  of  every  tongue  and 
nation ;  the  baptized  community  was  liter- 
ally to  represent  mankind.  If  it  be  so,  the 
name  Father  loses  its  significance  for  us  in- 
dividually when  we  will  not  use  it  as  the 
members  of  a  family.  No  doubt  it  is  a  true 
name  ;  it  expresses  an  actual  relation ;  and 
therefore,  if  we  attain  by  ever  so  unfair  a 
process,  through  ever  so  narrow  a  chink,  to 
the  perception  of  it,  we  may  be  thankful. 


I.]  WHICH  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  7 

But  the  possession  is  an  insecure  one  :  if 
some  feelings  or  apprehensions  give  us  a  title 
to  it,  the  title  will  become  uncertain  with 
every  variety  of  our  feelings  and  apprehen- 
sions. We  shall  regard  the  Unchangeable 
as  a  Father  to-day,  and  not  to-morrow. 
And  then  what  becomes  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer  as  a  fixed  manner  or  model  for  all 
prayer  ?  What  becomes  of  it  as  a  resource 
in  times  of  tribulation,  when  our  feelings 
and  apprehensions  are  in  the  lowest,  most 
miserable,  state  ?  What  is  its  worth  when 
we  are  tempted  by  suggestions  addressed  to 
these  very  feelings  and  apprehensions  —  sug- 
gestions wliich  overmaster  tliem,  and  get 
possession  of  them  ?  Does  any  one  answer, 
that  God  is  calle(l  the  Father  of  our  spirits, 
that  He  is  said  to  beget  us  to  a  new  life, 
that  as  natural  men  we  are  not  his  chil- 
dren^ though  we  are  his  creatures  ?  All 
this  is  true  and  most  important  ;  and  it  is 
precisely  what  we  assert,  when  we  say  that 
God  has  redeemed  mankind  in  Christ.  We 
mean  that  He  has  not  left  us  to  be  fleshly 
creatures,  to  be  animals,  as  we  are  naturally 
inclined  to  be,  and  would  be  altogether,  if 
He  were  not  upholding  us  ;  we  mean  that 
He  has  owned  us  as  spiritual  creatures,  has 


8  OUR  FATHER  [Serm. 

claimed  us  in  that  character  to  be  his  ser- 
vants and  cliildren,  has  given  us  his  Spirit. 
We  say  that  when  a  man  arises  and  goes 
to  his  Father,  he  renounces  his  vile,  selfish, 
exclusive  life,  and  takes  up  that  human 
privilege  which  God  has  given  him  in 
Christ ;  he  enters  upon  his  state  as  a  man 
when  he  confesses  God  as  his  Father.  If, 
instead  of  doing  this,  he  will  stand  upon 
certain  feelings  and  apprehensions  of  his, 
which  separate  him  from  his  kind,  he  is  not 
a  penitent ;  he  is  still  a  self -exalting,  seK- 
glorifying  man  ;  he  has  not  been  brought  to 
feel  that  he  is  nothing ;  he  has  not  been  forced 
to  cast  himself  wholly  and  absolutely  upon 
the  love  and  mercy  of  God  in  Christ.  And, 
surely,  such  dependence,  such  self-renuncia- 
tion, such  willingness  to  take  up  a  common 
position  as  portions  of  a  family,  is  very  dif- 
ficult for  creatures  proud  as  we  are,  eager 
to  have  something  of  our  own,  always  hop- 
ing to  make  out  for  ourselves  special  pleas 
of  exemption  from  the  laws  of  the  universe. 
Only  by  discoveries  often  forgotten,  often 
repeated,  that  we  cannot  establish  any  such 
pleas,  that  they  must  prove  trumpery  and 
preposterous,  when  they  are  urged  before 
the  Judge  of  the  whole  earth,  only  through 


r.]  WHICH  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  9 

the  dreary  conviction  that  oui*  faith  and 
hope  and  love,  as  well  as  our  deeds,  are  shal- 
low and  insincere,  are  we  drawn  to  real  trust 
in  Him  who  is  faithful  and  loving,  who  is 
the  God  of  all  hope ;  who  can  impart  to  us 
the  power  of  believing,  of  hoping,  of  loving, 
of  doing  what  is  right;  who  is  willing  to 
impart  it  because  He  is  our  Father,  and  has 
promised  all  good  things  to  them  that  ask 
Him. 

III.  It  might  seem,  till  we  know  a  little 
of  ourselves,  that  the  next  words,  "  which 
art,"  had  nothing  in  them  to  cause  us  offense 
or  perplexity.  But  they  too  are  hard  words. 
The  greatest  temptation,  perhaps,  of  this 
age  is,  to  tliink  of  the  ^lo'st  High  rather  as 
one  about  whom  we  read  in  a  book  than  as 
the  Living  God,  the  name  by  which  the  book 
always  speaks  of  Him.  It  is  a  fearful  tend- 
ency ;  but  if  you  search  your  hearts,  you  will 
find  it  there.  Nay,  there  is  not  need  of  much 
searching ;  the  habit  is  so  natural.  In  all 
ages,  a  disposition  has  been  apparent,  not  in 
irreligious  minds,  but  in  those  which  are 
specially  serious  and  reverential,  to  turn  in 
their  devotion  towards  that  which  has  been, 
rather  than  to  that  which  is,  towards  images 
and  relics,  towards  whatever  carries  with  it 


10  OUR  FATHER  [Serm. 

the  sign  and  reminiscence  of  personality,  but 
is  not  personal.  The  modern  English  form 
of  it,  which  makes  words  rather  than  visible 
objects  the  substitutes  for  the  unseen  reali- 
ties, is  externally  so  unlike  the  other,  that 
we  are  not  easily  persuaded  of  their  essential 
identity.  It  is  the  effort  of  prayer  which 
brings  the  evil  fully  before  us.  What  a  dim 
shadow,  thrown  it  would  seem  from  our  own 
minds,  has  often  been  before  us  when  we 
were  kneeling  to  the  Majesty  of  Heaven. 
What  a  strange  seK-congratulation,  that  we 
were  performing  an  act  of  worship,  good  and 
desirable,  to  some  Being ;  but  to  ivhat  Being 
we  hardly  dared  to  ask  ourselves !  O  I 
surely  even  in  such  hours  there  have  been 
flashes  upon  the  conscience,  wonderful  assm^- 
ances  that  the  place  was  a  dreadful  one ; 
that  God  was  there,  though  we  had  not 
known  it.  These  are  admonitions  that  the 
Father  of  all  lives,  though  our  spirits  be  ever 
so  dead.  But  they  are  also  admonitions  that 
we  should  stir  ourselves  to  the  recollection  of 
Him,  who  is  always  near  our  spirits ;  who 
can  both  restore  life  to  them,  and  keep  them 
alive.  And  if,  at  any  time.  He  has  taught 
us  to  feel  that  the  universe  would  be  a  hor- 
rible blank  without  Him ;  that  his  absence 


I.]  WHipn  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  11 

would  be  infinitely  more  to  us  than  to  all 
creatures  beside;  that  if  He  is  not,  or  we 
cannot  find  Him,  consciousness,  memory,  ex- 
pectation, existence,  must  be  curses  unbear- 
able :  but  that  when  the  burden  of  the  world 
and  of  self  is  most  crushing,  we  may  take 
refuge  from  both  in  Him,  —  if  at  any  time 
such  convictions  have  dawned  upon  us,  let 
us  not' hope  to  keep  the  blessing  of  them  by 
our  own  skill  and  watchfulness.  Let  us  say, 
"  Our  Father  which  art,  when  we  least  re- 
member thee,  fix  the  thought  of  thy  Being 
deeper  than  all  other  thoughts  within  us  ; 
and  may  we,  thy  children,  dwell  in  it,  and 
find  our  home  and  rest  in  it,  now  and  for- 
ever." 

IV.  Once  more :  the  words  "  In  Eeaven,'" 
as  they  are  closely  united  with  those  which 
went  before  in  meaning,  so  too,  like  them, 
come  into  collision  with  some  of  our  strong- 
est evil  tendencies.  The  impulse  of  ordi- 
nary polytheists  was  to  -bring  God  down 
to  earth ;  to  make  Him  like  themselves. 
Against  this  impulse  the  philosopher  pro- 
tested, representing  the  Divine  Nature  as 
wholly  inactive,  self-concentrated,  removed 
from  mundane  interests.  The  Gospel  jus- 
tifies the  truth  which  was  implied   in   the 


12  OUR  FATHER  [Serm. 

error  of  the  first ;  Christ,  taking  flesh,  and 
dwelling  among  men,  declares  that  Heaven 
has  stooped  to  earth.  But  here  a  great 
many  would  stop:  they  would  bring  back 
Paganism  through  Christianity.  The  Son 
of  God,  they  say,  has  become  incarnate  ; 
now  fleshly  things  are  again  divine ;  earth  is 
overshadowed  by  Heaven  ;  it  is  no  longer 
sin  to  worship  that  which  He  has  glorified. 
In  the  manger  of  Bethlehem  they  sink  the 
Resurrection  and  Ascension  :  they  will  only 
look  at  one  part  of  the  great  Redemption, 
not  at  the  whole  of  it ;  at  the  condescension 
to  our  vileness,  not  at  the  deliverance  from 
that  vileness,  wliich  the  Son  accomplished 
when  he  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father.  But  He  does  not  sanction  this  par- 
tial and  groveling  view.  "  After  this  man- 
ner," He  taught  his  disciples,  even  while  He 
was  upon  the  earth,  "  pray  ye.  Our  Father 
which  art  in  Heaven."  As  if  He  had  said, 
Do  not  think  that  I  am  come  to  make  your 
thoughts  of  God  less  awful  than  those  of 
Moses  were,  when  he  put  his  shoes  off  his 
feet  and  durst  not  behold ;  than  Solomon's 
were,  when  he  said,  ''  He  is  in  Heaven  and 
thou  upon  earth,  therefore  let  thy  words  be 
few."    The  revelation  of  the  divine  mystery 


I.]  WHICH  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  13 

in  me  is  not  given  that  you  may  entertain 
it  better  in  your  low  carnal  hearts,  that  you 
may  mingle  it  more  with  the  things  which 
you  see  and  handle ;  that  each  of  you  may 
have  a  warrant  for  the  form  of  idolatry 
which  is  dear  to  him.  This  revelation  is 
given  that  the  mj-stery  may  be  no  longer 
one  of  darkness,  but  of  perfect  light  :  light 
which  you  will  enter  into  more  and  more  as 
your  eyes  are  purged  ;  but  which,  if  it  color 
the  mists  of  earth  for  a  moment,  will  at  last 
scatter  them  altogether. 

"  Owr  Father  :  "  there  lies  the  expression 
of  that  fixed  eternal  relation  which  Christ's 
birth  and  death  have  established  between 
the  littleness  of  the  creature  and  the  Maj- 
esty of  the  Creator ;  the  one  great  practical 
answer  to  the  philosopher  who  would  make 
heaven  clear  by  making  it  cold ;  would  as- 
sert the  dignity  of  the  Divine  Essence  by 
emptying  it  of  its  love,  and  reducing  it 
into  nothingness.  Our  Father  which  art  in 
Heaven:  there  lies  the  answer  to  all  the 
miserable  substitutes  for  faith  by  which  the 
invisible  has  been  lowered  to  the  visible ; 
which  have  insulted  the  understanding  and 
cheated  the  heart ;  which  have  made  united 
woi-ship   impossible,  because  that  can  only 


14  OUR  FATHER  [Serm. 

be  when  there  is  One  Being,  eternal,  immor- 
tal, invisible,  to  whom  all  may  look  np 
together,  into  whose  presence  a  way  is 
opened  for  all,  whose  presence  is  a  refuge 
from  the  confusions,  perplexities,  and  divis- 
ions of  this  world  ;  that  home  which  the 
spirits  of  men  were  ever  seeking,  and  could 
not  find,  till  He,  who  had  borne  their  sor- 
roAvs  and  died  their  death,  entered  within 
the  veil,  having  obtained  eternal  redemption, 
for  them,  till  He  bade  them  sit  with  Him 
in  heavenly  places. 

What  I  have  said  may  have  seemed  to 
prove  that  this  simple  prayer  is  too  high 
and  too  deep  for  creatures  such  as  we  are. 
Would  you  have  it  otherwise  ?  Would  you 
have  a  prayer  which  you  can  comprehend 
and  fathom  ?  I  am  sure  the  conscience  and 
reason  would  reject  such  a  prayer  as  a  de- 
lusion, an  evident  self-contradiction.  I  have 
said  nothing  to  show  that  this  prayer  is  im- 
suitable  to  the  wants  and  ignorance  of  any 
beggar  in  our  streets.  I  have  shown  only 
that  the  wisest  man,  who  will  not  use  it  as 
that  beggar  does,  who  will  try  it  by  his 
own  narrow  methods  and  measures,  will 
find  that  he  has  never  entered  into  the  sense 
of  it,  that  he  is  condemninoj  himself  in  the 


I.]  WHICH  ART  IN  HEAVEN.  15 

repetition  of  it.  And  if,  brethren,  we  all 
know  that  we  have  been  guilty  of  this 
mockery  again  and  again,  how  clearly  do 
oui'  consciences  mtness,  that  it  is  after  this 
manner,  and  no  other,  we  must  make  our 
confession.  What  despair  we  should  be  in, 
if  oui-  unbelief  were  indeed  truth,  and  not  a 
lie !  If  the  word  "  Our "  did  not  express 
the  truth  that  we  participate  in  the  bless- 
ings as  well  as  the  curses  of  the  wliole 
race ;  if  the  word  "  Father  "  were  a  word 
merely,  and  not  the  expression  of  an  eternal 
truth ;  if  we  might  think  of  Ilim  as  not 
nigh,  but  afar  off  ;  in  a  book,  not  as  one  in 
whom  we  are  living  and  having  our  being  ;  if 
He  were  subject  to  the  changes  of  earth, 
not  forever  fixed  in  Heaven,  whither  could 
we  turn  under  the  overpowering  sense  of 
our  own  sinfulness  and  heartlessness  ?  It  is 
the  full  conviction  that  our  misery  has  pro- 
ceeded from  ourselves,  from  our  maintaining 
a  resolute  war  with  facts  and  reality,  which 
can  alone  give  us  encouragement.  For  we 
know  there  is  One  who  is  \villing  to  teach 
us  how  to  pray  this  prayer  in  spirit  and  in 
truth  ;  we  know  that  there  is  One  who  is 
praying  it.  He  who  died  for  us  and  for  all 
mankind.  He  who  is  ascended  into  Heaven, 


16     OUR  FATHER    WHICH  ART,  ETC.     [Serm.  I. 

He  who  is  true  and  in  whom  is  no  lie,  did 
when  He  was  here  clothed  with  our  mortal- 
ity, does  now  in  his  glorified  humanity  say, 
in  the  full  meaning  of  the  words,  for  us  and 
for  his  whole  family  above  and  below,  '*  Our 
Father  which  art  in  Heaven." 


SERMON  11. 

SEPTUAGESIMA  SUNDAY. 


Hallowed  be  thy  Name.  —  Matthew  vi.  9. 

r  SAID  last  Sunday  that  in  this  Prayer 
-*-  our  Lord  taught  us  the  method,  as  well 
as  the  principle,  of  all  prayer.  It  is,  in- 
deed, impossible  to  separate  one  from  the 
other.  The  principle  of  a  prayer  which  asks 
first  for  bread  or  forgiveness,  must  be  wholly 
different  from  the  principle  of  one  which 
begins  with  '^  Hallowed  be  thy  Name."  The 
conceptions  of  Prayer  which  you  would  de- 
rive from  them  are  unlike,  nay,  they  are 
opposed. 

I  think  there  can  be  little  doubt  which 
form  men  would  most  readily  adopt.  "  Let 
us  have  bread  enough,  bread  to  satisfy  all 
bodily  appetites  :  bread,  if  you  will,  that 
shall  meet  our  intellectual,  our  spiritual 
desires  —  what  other  petition  can  possibly 
take  precedence  of  this  ?  If  an  earthly  ruler 


18  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.        [Serm. 

could  send  us  this  blessing,  should  we  not 
implore  him  for  it  before  all  things  ?  If  we 
are  hearty  in  beheving  that  the  Heavenly- 
Ruler  is  willing  to  send  it,  shall  we  not  take 
the  same  course  when  we  call  upon  Him  ? 
Shall  we  strain  ourselves  to  introduce  need- 
less, artificial  preliminaries,  when  this  is 
what  He  knows  we  are  craving  for  ?  "  So 
men  are  likely  to  reason  till  they  painfully 
discover  that  there  is  something  they  need 
more  than  bread ;  till  a  certain  inward  gnaw- 
ing in  lonely  hours,  on  a  sick-bed,  suggests 
that  sin  has  need  to  be  pardoned  as  well  as 
hunger  to  be  appeased.  Is  it  not  still  more 
monstrous  to  interpose  any  check  to  the  ut- 
terance of  this  cry  ?  What  can  be  so  desir- 
able as  that  it  should  be  poured  forth  with 
all  the  agony  and  intensity  of  a  spirit  which 
has  learnt  that  such  a  boon  would  be  cheaply 
purchased  by  the  sacrifice  of  all  thmgs  else  ? 
Language  of  this  kind  would  seem  to  be 
religious  as  well  as  natural,  proceeding  from 
sympathy  with  human  needs,,  and  a  belief 
that  there  is  a  divine  provision  for  them. 
And  yet  our  Lord  says,  "  After  this  man- 
ner pray  ye :  Our  Father  which  art  in 
Heaven,  Hallowed  be  thy  Name."  He  rec- 
ognizes the  desires  of  which  I  have  spoken 


II.]  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.  19 

as  reasonable  and  true,  but  He  postpones 
them  ;  and  this,  too,  when  he  is  warning  us 
against  babbling  in  prayer,  against  all  vain, 
idle  formulas  ;  when  He  is  directing  us  espe- 
cially to  ask  for  the  things  we  have  need  of. 
Brethren,  in  this  difference  lies,  I  believe, 
the  great  contrast  between  those  systems 
of  theological  doctrine  and  practice  which 
have  been  shaped  out  by  the  subtlety  of 
divines,  in  accordance  with  the  cravings  of 
disciples,  and  that  teaching  which  begins 
from  God,  which  never  lowers  itself  to  the 
base  and  selfish  thoughts  of  men,  and  which, 
therefore,  is  able  to  satisfy  all  that  is  real  in 
man  as  nothing  else  can.  Ask  the  system- 
atizer  what  that  revelation  is  which  the 
Bible  records :  he  will  tell  you  that  it  is  the 
announcement  of  the  duty  which  man  owes 
to  his  Maker  for  the  good  things  he  enjoys 
upon  earth,  and  of  a  scheme  of  redemption 
by  which  he  may  obtain  pardon  for  his  sins, 
and  higher  blessings  hereafter.  Ask  the 
Apostles,  or  our  Lord  Himself,  what  that 
revelation  is,  and  they  say  it  is  the  revelation 
of  a  Father  whom  men  were  feeling  after 
and  could  not  find,  and  who  at  length  de- 
clared Himself  to  them  in  his  well-beloved 
Son.     If  the  first  statement  be  accepted  as 


20  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.        [Serm. 

the  truest  and  simplest,  the  prayers,  "  Give 
us  bread,"  "  Forgive  us  our  sins,"  are  all 
that  we  have  any  concern  with  ;  we  should 
rush  into  them  at  once  ;  by  them  we  grasp 
all  the  good  which  creation  and  redemption 
have  in  store  for  us.  If  we  are  led  by  any 
process  to  feel  that  the  news  concerning  a 
father  is  really  the  good  news,  apart  from 
which  the  promise  of  food  or  pardon  would 
signify  nothing,  we  shall  feel  that  "  Hal- 
lowed be  thy  Name  "  is  the  first  and  most 
necessary  and  most  blessed  prayer  for  the 
whole  human  race  and  for  every  one  of  its 
members. 

For  every  gross  and  cruel  superstition  has 
this  origin  and  definition  :  it  springs  from 
ignorance  of  the  name  of  God  ;  it  consists 
in  and  by  that  ignorance.  It  mixes  Him 
with  his  creatures ;  first  with  what  is 
highest  in  them,  next  with  what  is  mean, 
then  with  what  is  basest ;  finally  it  identifies 
Him  with  the  Evil  Spirit.  What  is  darkest 
and  most  hateful ;  what  a  man  flies  from 
most  and  would  desire  should  not  exist ;  this 
becomes  the  object  of  his  worship.  He  has 
within  him  a  Avitness  that  there  is  a  Being 
whom  he  ought  to  love  with  his  heart  and 
soul  and  strength.    That  which  he  conceives 


n.]  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.  21 

of  as  this  Being,  that  which  his  fancy  and 
his  conscience  represent  to  him  is  one  whom 
he  inwardly  hates,  and  from  whom  he  would 
be  delivered. 

But  these  horrors  belong,  it  will  be  said, 
to  the  ages  of  priestcraft ;  civilization  puts 
an  end  to  them.  Let  us  understand  our- 
selves clearly  on  this  point,  that  we  may  not 
deny  what  is  right  in  the  assertion,  nor  be 
deluded  by  mere  phi-ases.  The  classes  which 
have  been  brought  within  the  reach  and 
sway  of  civilization  have,  no  doubt,  learnt 
that  the  inventions  of  superstition  are  false 
and  mischievous  ;  they  have  seen  that  a  dark 
notion  of  the  divinity  is  at  the  root  of  them  ; 
they  have  made  strenuous  efforts  to  rid 
themselves  of  wliat  they  believe  to  be  a 
phantom.  In  place  of  it  they  have  substi- 
tuted a  being  answering  to  their  own  habits 
of  mind,  good-natured,  indifferent,  tolerant 
of  evil.  To  such  a  being  they  have  paid 
a  homage  which  they  have  almost  felt  to  be 
fictitious,  —  a  homage  justifpng  itself  chief- 
ly on  the  plea  that  the  dependence  of  infe- 
riors —  the  general  order  of  society  —  could 
hardly  be  maintained  without  it.  The 
humbler  men,  partly  perceiving  why  this 
decent    devotion    was    thought    desirable. 


22  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.        [Serm. 

partly  observing  that  it  only  lasted  during 
summer-days,  and  was  often  changed  for 
another  and  more  vulgar  sort  in  calamity  ; 
but,  above  all,  conscious  that  it  was  of  a 
nature  altogether  unsuited  to  them,  either 
cherish  amid  the  glare  and  glitter  of  civil- 
ized life  the  dark  thoughts  of  another  age, 
or  change  them  for  a  more  resolute  and 
courageous  Atheism,  or,  lastly,  learn  that 
God  is  a  refuge  in  time  of  trouble,  a  dehv- 
erer  from  the  horrors  of  conscience,  not  an 
enemy  who  must  be  persuaded  to  forego  his 
hatred  of  them,  or  a  mere  phantom  of 
benevolence,  who  leaves  his  creatures  un- 
disturbed in  their  wickedness  and  misery. 
Upon  our  thoughts  of  God  it  will  depend, 
in  one  time  or  another,  whether  we  rise 
higher  or  sink  lower  as  societies  and  as  in- 
dividuals. 

The  civility  or  intelligence  of  a  people 
may  seem  to  have  grown  up,  and  to  be  grow- 
ing, under  the  influence  of  a  multitude  of  ad- 
ventitious circumstances.  But  if  you  search 
well,  you  will  find  that  whatever  there  is  in 
it  not  false,  whatever  has  not  the  sentence 
of  speedy  death  written  upon  it,  has  had  a 
deeper  and  more  mysterious  origin.  It  has 
been  the  fruit  of  struororles,  carried  on  in  sol- 


II.]  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.  23 

itary  chambers  by  men  whom  the  world  has 
not  known,  or  has  despised  ;  struggles  which 
were  to  decide  what  power  they  were  meant 
to  obey,  and  to  what  power  they  would  yield 
themselves  ;  struggles  to  know  the  name  of 
Him  w^ho  was  ^vrestling  with  them  ;  to  know 
whether  He  was  one  who  cared  for  them,  or 
who  hated  them  or  despised  them  ;  whether 
they  liad  a  real  or  an  imaginary  Master  ; 
whether  God  is  a  presence  floating  in  the  air, 
or  a  Person  who  can  be  loved,  feared,  trusted ; 
whether  they  and  the  universe  were  sep- 
arated by  a  thin  plank  of  opinion  and  senti- 
ment from  a  bottomless  pit  of  Atheism,  into 
which  both  must  sink  at  last;  or  whether 
they  were  resting  upon  a  rock  whicli  could 
not  pass  away,  though  not  earth  only  should 
be  shaken,  but  also  heaven.  But  for  these 
questions,  which  those  who  were  exercised 
by  them  knew  were  not  propounded  by  any 
human  doctor,  do  not  fancy  that  there  could 
have  been  any  thought  or  energy  or  hope  in 
the  world.  Luxury  and  comfort  do  not  con- 
fer these  ;  there  is  no  exorcism  in  them  to 
cast  out  the  demons  of  indolence  and  despair. 
No !  men  have  learnt  to  say  this  prayer, 
"  Hallowed  be  thy  Name ;  "  and  to  say  it 
before  all  others.    They  have  found  that  the 


24  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.        [Serm. 

prayer  for  bread  might  mean  anything,  from 
an  Eleusinian  mystery  to  the  cry  of  a  Ge- 
noveva  in  the  desert  for  milk  to  nourish  her 
babe ;  that  a  prayer  for  forgiveness  might 
mean  anything,  from  the  words,  "  Thou  de- 
sirest  truth  in  the  inward  parts ;  thou  canst 
wash  me  with  hyssop,  and  I  shall  be  clean ; 
thou  canst  wash  me,  and  I  shall  be  whiter 
than  snow ;  "  to  the  sacrifice  of  a  virgin, 
that  the  wrath  of  the  gods  might  be  averted, 
and  a  favorable  breeze  granted  to  a  fleet. 
One  petition  as  much  as  the  other,  these  suf- 
ferers perceived,  must  derive  its  worth  from 
that  which  went  before.  What  is  the  name 
of  Him  to  whom  we  pray  ?  all  the  meaning 
of  prayer,  of  human  existence,  turns  upon 
the  answer  which  we  make  to  this  demand. 
II.  But  is  it  not  quite  certain  what  answer 
we  shall  make  to  it  ?  How  can  we  hallow 
the  name  of  God,  if  by  halloiving  is  meant 
keeping  it  separate  from  all  other  names  ; 
preserving  it  as  the  special  treasure  of  our 
spirits ;  not  suffering  the  idea  of  absolute 
holiness,  purity,  goodness,  to  be  soiled  by 
any  defilements  from  without  or  from  within  ? 
Suppose  I  could  shut  myself  out  from  the 
world,  drawing  round  me  some  charmed  cir- 
cle which  should  exclude  not  only  its  direct 


II.]  BALL  OWED  BE   TBY  NAME.  25 

assaults  but  its  secret  plague  influences, 
should  I  not  still  have  to  ask  myself  whether 
I  was  a  safe  steward  of  the  divine  treasure  ; 
whether  my  pride  in  the  trust  might  not 
destroy  it ;  whether  the  name  might  not  pass 
into  a  shadow,  while  I  was  thinking  of  it  as 
most  substantial ;  whether  it  might  not  be 
acquiring  from  the  imaginations  of  my  heart 
all  the  same  mixtures  which  it  had  con- 
tracted among  the  tribes  of  men  ? 

Experience  authorizes  these  inquiries  ;  it 
scarcely  authorizes  us  in  giving  more  than 
one  answer  to  them.  Sohtude  is  no  security 
for  the  hallowing  of  God's  name  ;  recluses 
have  dealt  as  irreverently  with  it  as  men  in 
the  world's  bustle.  For  us,  however,  this 
point  is  of  no  great  practical  inportance,  ex- 
cept to  preserve  us  from  desiring  a  state 
which  is  evidently  not  intended  for  us.  We 
know  that  our  thoughts  of  God,  as  well  as 
our  other  thoughts,  are,  and  will  be  contin- 
ually, affected  by  speech,  by  books,  by  the 
movement  and  attrition  of  society.  We 
know  how  various  these  thoughts  have  been  : 
earnest  yesterday,  indifferent  to-day ;  the 
name  now  so  Uttle  heeded,  that  we  could 
trifle  with  it  in  the  most  ordinary  conversa- 
tion, in  the  most  vulgar  adjurations  ;  now  so 


26  HALLOWED  BE   THT  NAME.        [Serm. 

terrible,  that  we  dared  not  entertain  the 
thought  of  it ;  now  looking  so  beautiful  at 
a  distance,  that  we  were  content  it  should 
always  remain  at  a  distance  ;  now  approach- 
ing into  awful  nearness  ;  now  making  us 
fear  that  it  would  ever  be  a  shadow  to  us, 
and  nothing  more  ;  now  inviting  us  to  take 
refuge  in  it  from  a  hopeless  Atheism.  To 
hallow  God's  name,  habitually  to  hallow  it, 
amidst  such  countless  variations  of  the  ex- 
ternal atmosphere,  such  colds  and  heats  in 
ourselves  —  how  is  it  possible  ?  Must  not 
we  give  up  the  attempt  ? 

III.  Certainly  it  is  better  that  we  should'; 
then  we  shall  begin  to  pray,  "  Hallowed  be 
thy  Name."  We  cannot  hallow  it ;  we  can- 
not keep  it  from  contact  with  our  folly, 
baseness,  corruption  ;  the  world  cannot  keep 
it ;  the  Church  cannot.  But  Thou  canst. 
Thou  canst  make  the  darkness  of  the  world 
a  foil  to  thy  clear  untroubled  light,  a  means 
to  its  manifestation.  Thou  canst  make "  the 
intricacies,  falsehoods,  contradictions  of  our 
hearts  into  reasons  for  our  seeking  and  ap- 
prehending thy  simplicity  and  truth.  That 
which  would  be  in  us,  left  to  ourselves,  ter- 
ror of  thy  power,  thou  canst  make  awe  of 
thy  holiness  ;  what  would  be  presumption 


II.]  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.  27 

of  thy  indifference,  thou  canst  make  into 
hope  of  thy  mercy  ;  what  would  be  defiance 
of  thy  judgment,  thou  canst  make  trust  in 
thy  righteousness.  Thus  will  thy  image  be 
restored  in  man,  because  he  will  be  able  to 
behold  Thee  the  Archetype. 

Such  a  prayer  is  not  one  which  men  could 
have  dreamed  of  themselves,  but  it  is  one 
which  God  himself  has  taught  them.  He 
led  his  saints  in  the  old  time  to  pray  that 
He  would  declare  his  great  name  ;  to  thank 
Him  for  all  his  past  revelations  of  it ;  to  flee 
to  it  as  a  strong  tower,  in  which  they  were 
safe  from  their  enemies.  Every  new  act  of 
his  judgment  and  his  mercy  was  an  answer 
to  the  cry ;  in  every  such  act  the  prophet 
saw  the  witness  and  pledge  of  a  fuller  mani- 
festation. The  petition  then  was  no  new 
one.  The  disciples  had  often  heard  it  before 
that  day  when  our  Lord  was  alone  praying, 
and  when  they  said,  "  Teach  us  as  John 
taught  his  disciples."  But  they  knew  that 
He  had  stampt  it  with  a  new  impression  ; 
for  though  they  understood  but  imperfectly 
why  He  had  come,  and  who  He  was,  their 
hearts  testified  that  He  had  certainly  come 
to  do  that  which  He  bade  them  ask  for.  If 
He  brought  gifts  to  men,  if  He  proclaimed 


28  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.        [Serm. 

forgiveness  to  men,  this  was  his  first  gift, 
this  was  the  ground  of  his  forgiveness,  He 
hallowed  the  name  of  God.  He  showed 
forth  the  Father  who  dwelt  in  Him  full  of 
grace  and  truth.  Men  could  see  Him  after 
whose  likeness  they  had  been  created,  in  a 
pure  untroubled  mirror.  They  were  not 
obhged  to  measure  the  Eternal  Mind  by  the 
partial  distorted  forms  of  truth  and  goodness 
which  they  found  each  in  himself.  Here 
was  goodness  and  truth  in  its  primitive 
form,  in  its  entire  fullness.  They  needed 
not  to  reduce  goodness  and  truth  into  ab- 
stractions ;  here  they  were  exhibited  in 
actual  human  life ;  the  perfect  man  reflect- 
ing the  perfect  God.  They  need  not  dream 
of  qualities  which  the  shock  of  the  Fall 
had  separated  in  their  minds  —  mercy  and 
justice,  freedom  and  obedience  —  as  having 
a  corresponding  conflict  in  the  Eternal 
Mind ;  here  they  were  seen  working  harmo- 
niously in  every  word  and  deed. 

Thus  God's  name  was  hallowed  for  them, 
thus  it  has  been  hallowed  for  us.  This  reve- 
lation is  for  all  ages :  if  one  has  more  need 
of  it  than  another,  ours  is  the  one. 

We  are  in  danger  alike  from  the  invasion 
of  all  old  superstitions,  and  of  a  fanatical 


n.]  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.  29 

Atheism  ;  for  they  have  a  common  ground. 
All  superstition,  all  idolatry,  has  its  root  in 
the  belief  that  God  is  made  in  our  image,  and 
not  we  in  his  ;  the  most  prevalent  assump- 
tion of  the  modern  as  of  the  ancient  soph- 
ist is,  that  man  is  the  measure  of  all  things  ; 
that  there  is  nothing  great  or  holy  which  is 
not  his  creation.  Do  not  wonder,  then,  at 
any  combinations  you  may  see  in  our  day 
between  parties  seemingly  the  most  hostile, 
—  at  any  apparently  sudden  transitions  from 
one  camp  to  the  other.  There  is  no  real  in- 
consistency, no  abandonment  of  principle. 
Do  not  let  us  be  hasty  in  urging  that  charge 
or  any  charge.  But  let  us  be  very  careful 
in  understanding  the  temptation  of  the  age, 
because  it  is  certainly  our  own.  Let  us  not 
think  we  escape  it  by  doing  just  the  opposite 
of  those  who  seem  to  us  to  have  fallen  into 
it,  by  cultivating  all  opinions  and  notions 
which  they  reject,  by  fearing  a  truth  when 
they  speak  it.  We  may  find  that  their 
practical  conclusions  meet  us  at  the  point 
which  we  thought  the  furthest  from  them, 
and  that  we  have  turned  away  from  the  very 
principle  with  which  we  might  have  strength- 
ened ourselves,  if  not  have  done  some  good 
to  them.     Still  less  let  us  refuse  to  have  our 


30  HALLOWED  BE   THY  NAME.        [Serm. 

own  loose  and  incoherent  notions  brought  to 
trial,  lest  in  losing  them  we  should  lose  the 
eternal  truths  of  God's  Word.  Depend  upon 
it,  they  are  in  the  greatest  peril  from  every 
insincere  habit  of  mind  we  tolerate  in  our- 
selves ;  they  will  come  out  with  a  brightness 
we  have  never  dreamed  of  when  we  are  made 
simple  and  honest.  Therefore  let  us  pray 
this  prayer,  "  Hallowed  be  thy  Name,"  be- 
lieving that  it  has  been  answered,  and  being 
confident  that  it  will  be  answered.  It  was 
answered  in  the  old  time  by  God's  covenant ; 
by  the  calling  of  every  holy  man  ;  by  the 
Divine  law  ;  by  all  the  ordinances  of  family 
and  national  life ;  by  every  prophet  and 
teacher  whom  God  sent ;  by  every  witness 
which  He  bore  to  one  people  or  another,  in 
their  consciences,  in  the  discipline  of  their 
lives,  through  nature,  through  death,  of  his 
own  character.  It  was  answered  by  the 
whole  life  and  death  of  the  only-begotten 
Son,  the  firstborn  of  many  brethren,  the 
Prince  of  all  the  kings  of  the  earth.  It  was 
answered  by  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
abide  with  the  Church  forever,  for  this  end, 
that  He  might  teach  men  of  the  Father  and 
the  Son.  It  is  answered  by  our  baptism 
into  the  holy  and  blessed  Name,  the  Father, 


II.]  HALLOWED  BE    THY  NAME.  31 

the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  answered 
by  confirmation  and  prayers,  and  holy  com- 
munions, by  individual  trials,  by  visitations 
to  nations,  by  the  gift  of  new  life  to  churches, 
by  the  conversion  of  sinners,  by  dying  beds. 
It  will  be  answered  when  we  all  yield  our- 
selves up  in  deed  and  truth  to  the  Spirit  of 
God,  that  we  like  our  Lord  may  glorify  his 
name  upon  the  earth,  and  may  accompli sli 
the  work  which  He  has  given  us  to  do. 


SERMON  III. 

SEXAGESIMA  SUNDAY. 
TiiT  Kingdom  come.  —  Matthew  vi.  10. 

T^E  have  reached  this  petition  of  the 
*  *  Lord's  Prayer  at  a  time  which  would 
seem  to  give  it  special  emphasis  and  signif- 
icancy.  I  suppose  few  have  repeated  it  this 
week  without  a  kind  of  impression,  however 
vague,  that  it  bore  upon  events  which  were 
occupying  themselves  and  the  world.  The 
words,  ''  Thy  Kingdom,"  must  have  sug- 
gested to  most  a  contrast  between  a  King- 
dom which  cannot  be  moved,  and  kingdoms 
which  appeared  firm  one  day,  and  have  been 
shaken  to  the  ground  the  next. 

But  this  general  reflection  will  have  taken 
different  forms  according  to  the  previous 
habits,  convictions,  associations,  of  those  Avho 
entertained  it.  The  first  and  most  natural 
form  is  surely  an  expectation  that  there  will 
be  some  time  or  other  a  better  order  in  all 


Sebm.  in.]        THY  KINGDOM  COME.  33 

our  relations  to  each  other,  and  in  all  the 
circumstances  which  affect  us  here  on  this 
planet.  Upon  what  ground  soever  this  ex- 
pectation rests,  it  lasts  with  wonderful  vital- 
ity through  fair  and  foul  weather,  through 
killing  heats  and  frosts.  No  one  who  has 
once  cherished  it  entirely  loses  it  ;  or  if  he 
loses  it,  he  loses  himself  with  it.  Disappoint- 
ments, desertions,  mockeries,  may  change  its 
shape,  or  drive  it  further  within,  but  they  do 
not  destroy  it.  If  it  fades  away  for  a  while, 
it  bursts  out  more  vigorously  when  you 
least  look  for  it.  Many  who  have  expected 
from  one  civil  movement  after  another  that 
which  they  have  not  found,  believe  that  a 
better  ecclesiastical  organization,  or  a  freer 
working  of  that  which  exists,  would  remedy 
all  confusions ;  others  find  refuge  in  the 
promise  of  a  universal  education  ;  not  a  few, 
who  have  convinced  themselves  that  no 
human  rulers  of  one  kind  or  another,  in 
Church  or  State,  no  systems  of  government 
or  instruction,  will  avail  for  the  removal  of 
evil  and  the  establishment  of  good,  cling 
more  strongly  to  the  belief  that  One  who  is 
above  all  human  rulers  and  systems  will  soon 
claim  the  earth  as  his  rightful  possession ; 
that  all  convulsions  in  the  existing  order  of 


34  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [SerM. 

things  are  the  trumpets  by  which  He  an- 
nounces that  the  city  He  has  accursed  is 
about  to  fall  down.  All  these  convictions, 
different  as  they  are,  belong  to  the  same 
habit  of  mind.  Those  who  entertain  them 
mean  when  they  pray,  "  Thy  Kingdom 
come,"  "  Let  the  earth  be  governed  wisely 
and  truly,  not  as  it  has  been,  by  the  help  of 
folly,  insincerity,  crime." 

Such  a  prayer  will  call  up  some  echo  in 
the  hearts  of  all.  But  in  many  good  men 
only  a  feeble  echo ;  for  the  wish  which  it 
expresses  is,  in  them,  swallowed  up  by  a 
stronger  one.  They  never  knew  where  to 
find  or  how  to  make  for  themselves  a  posi- 
tion upon  earth ;  it  never  cheered  them  or 
soothed  them.  Now  and  then  they  have  had 
sudden  revelations  of  beauty  in  hill  or  valley, 
at  sunrise  or  sunset,  but  these  spoke,  as  they 
appeared  and  vanished,  of  some  region  to 
which  the  eye  could  not  reach.  Now  and 
then  they  have  met  faces  which  smiled  on 
them,  but  they  seemed  to  have  descended 
from  a  distant  home  to  which  they  soon  re- 
turned. Even  the  narrow  circle  in  which 
these  pilgrims  dwell  confuses  them  by  the 
various  interests  and  opposing  sentiments  of 
those  who  belong  to  it ;  the  larger  circles  of 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  35 

society,  with  their  manifold  complications, 
altogether  bewilder  them.  It  seems  to  them 
a  weary  maze,  without  a  plan  ;  men  are  run- 
ning a  race  with  each  other,  of  which  a  few 
withered  leaves  are  the  prize  ;  they  are  be- 
ginning a  tale  which  must  be  broken  off  in 
the  middle  ;  death  makes  all  plots  imperfect ; 
only  that  state  to  which  he  introduces  us  can 
unravel  them.  There  in  that  state  must  lie 
all  that  we  dream  of  and  hope  for.  Their 
vision  of  the  land  that  is  very  far  off  may 
be  not  as  clear  as  they  wish,  but  it  is  more 
clear  than  their  vision  of  anything  which  lies 
about  them  ;  Avithout  it  all  would  be  shadow 
and  darkness.  When  such  persons  think 
of  tumults  and  revolutions,  they  feel  more 
keenly  what  it  is  they  would  escape  from. 
When  they  pray,  "Thy  Kingdom  come," 
they  ask  that  the  Great  Shepherd  Avill  lead 
them  and  their  brethren  out  of  a  land  of 
pits,  a  thirsty  wilderness,  a  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  to  a  peaceable  habitation 
and  a  sure  dwelling  place. 

But  there  are  also  men  who  feel  strongly 
that  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  of  a 
weak  and  perishable  material,  and  yet  who 
cannot  be  satisfied  with  the  mere  antici- 
pation of   a  better  inheritance  after  death. 


36  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [Serm. 

They  require  what  is  different  in  kind  from 
anything  which  their  eyes  see,  not  merely 
that  in  an  improved  and  perfected  form. 
They  desire  a  blessing  which  by  its  very 
nature  cannot  be  more  for  one  time  than 
another,  cannot  be  less  needful  for  men  here 
than  hereafter.  They  have  spirits  which  are 
haunted  with  the  sense  of  a  beauty  and  right- 
eousness and  truth  which  may  be  imaged  in 
the  world  around  them,  but  of  which  the 
source  must  lie  much  nearer  to  themselves. 
Some  of  them  would  say  that  it  is  in  them- 
selves: if  men  were  but  great  and  noble, 
and  disengaged  from  the  impressions  of  sense 
and  the  notions  of  society,  they  would  per- 
ceive it.  Others  affirm  that  when  they  ex- 
alt themselves  this  secret  is  hidden  from 
them  ;  that  they  enter  into  it  only  when 
they  are  humbled. 

The  first  would  say,  not  indeed  in  a  prayer, 
but  in  their  professions,  their  daily  acts, 
their  processes  of  self-dicipHne,  *'  My  King- 
dom come  ;  "  let  my  spirit  be  lightened  of 
the  outward  impediments  which  prevent  it 
from  being  right,  wise,  free  ;  let  it  be  Hfted 
to  its  proper  throne,  from  which  it  may  look 
upon  all  beneath  and  around  it,  and  if  there 
be   aught   above  it,  as  its  own  possession. 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM    COME.  37 

The  other  says,  "Thy  Kingdom  come;" 
let  the  eyes  of  my  understanding  be  cleared 
of  their  native  mists,  that  they  may  see  thy 
wisdom  ;  let  me  be  purged  of  my  inward 
pride  and  self-seeking,  that  I  may  know 
thy  truth  ;  let  me  be  set  free  from  my  ex- 
ceeding sinfulness,  that  I  may  confess  thy 
righteousness,  and  be  clothed  with  it.  And 
that  this  may  come  to  pass,  do  thou  take 
the  government  of  all  that  is  within  me,  of 
conscience,  affection,  reason,  ^vill,  that  they 
may  do  thy  work  and  not  their  own,  and  be 
directed  to  the  great  ends  for  which  thou 
hast  designed  them,  not  to  those  meaner 
ends  which  they  would  invent  for  them- 
selves. 

We  have  found  then,  at  least,  three  dis- 
tinct interpretations  of  tliis  prayer,  leading 
to  practical  conclusions,  apparently  very 
remote  from  each  other.  It  is  surely  im- 
portant to  know  whether  they  are  incompat- 
ible ;  if  they  are,  which  is  the  right  one  ; 
if  they  are  not,  how  they  are  reconciled.  I 
think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  there  is 
but  one  authority  which  can  decide  these 
questions.  He  who  taught  his  disciples  the 
prayer,  can  alone  tell  them  what  the  nature 
of  that  Kingdom  is,  which  He  bids  them 
desire. 


38  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [Seem. 

I.  Yovi  will  remember,  that  when  our 
Lord  began  to  preach,  saying.  Repent,  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand,  the  ex- 
pectation of  a  coming  kingdom  was  strong 
in  the  minds  of  at  least  a  large  body  of  the 
Jewish  people.  Those  who  felt  the  Hero- 
dian  family  to  be  cruel  oppressors  and  for- 
eigners likewise,  those  who  were  tormented 
by  the  recollection  of  a  still  more  shameful 
servitude,  which  the  sight  of  every  Roman 
soldier,  of  every  tax-gatherer,  brought  before 
them,  believed  that  the  divine  Kingdom,  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  was  to  be  the  deliverance 
from  these.  Have  you  not  sometimes  won- 
dered that  we  are  not  told  of  any  direct 
words  in  which  our  Lord  combated  this  im- 
pression ?  He  might  have  said  at  once  to 
the  people  of  Galilee,  or  Judaea,  The  King- 
dom I  speak  of  has  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  those  to  which  you  compare  it ;  you 
only  confuse  yourselves  by  thinking  of  them 
together.  But  He  did  not  say  so.  He  used 
the  phrases,  "  Thy  Kingdom,"  "  The  King- 
dom of  God,"  "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven," 
on  every  possible  occasion,  though  He  knew 
that  this  association  was  present  to  the  minds 
of  those  who  heard  Him.  It  is  true,  that 
those  who  had  come  before  Him  appealing 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM   COME.  39 

to  the  desire  for  liberty  in  their  country- 
men, and  holding  out  the  hope  of  a  divine 
interference  to  satisfy  it,  had  led  their  fol- 
lowers into  the  wilderness  to  insurrection 
and  to  murder.  There  was  that  difference, 
amidst  a  multitude  of  others  as  wonderful, 
between  his  method  and  theirs.  What  I 
am  observing  is,  that  there  was  not  this  dif- 
ference. The  Jews  generally,  the  Gahleans 
more  than  the  rest  of  their  countrymen, 
looked  upon  themselves  as  in  an  oppressed, 
anomalous  condition,  such  as  the  chosen  peo- 
ple of  God  ought  not  to  be  in.  He  did  not 
tell  them  that  they  were  mistaken.  They 
believed  that  God  meant  to  deliver  them 
out  of  this  condition.  His  words  and  his 
acts  confirmed  them  m  the  hope.  They 
thought  that  they  must  be  brought  into  a 
different  social  position  before  they  could 
attain  freedom.  He  admitted  the  necessity. 
Many  public  acts,  besides  his  last  entry  into 
Jerusalem  as  the  Son  of  David,  proved  that 
He  claimed  to  be  what  Nathanael  declared 
Him  to  be,  "The  King  of  Israel."  His 
parables,  so  far  from  setting  aside  common 
language,  from  discoimecting  his  Kingdom 
with  the  common  relations  and  feeUngs  of 
men,  aflBirmed  that  all  facts   m  nature  and 


40  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [Serm. 

social  life  were  testifying  of  it ;  his  miracles, 
so  far  from  diminishing  the  impression  that 
He  came  to  set  men  free  from  a  galling 
yoke,  were  one  and  all  acts  of  dehverance  ; 
of  deliverance,  not  from  some  bondage  of 
which  the  sufferers  were  not  conscious,  but 
from  the  most  visible,  obvious,  bodily  tor- 
ments. These  are  sufficient  proofs,  I  think, 
that  our  Lord  did  not  intend  us,  when  we 
prayed  his  prayer,  to  shut  our  eyes  against 
the  actual  confusions  and  oppressions  under 
which  men  are  suffering,  or  to  think  that 
his  Kingdom  is  of  too  transcendant  a  char- 
acter to  take  account  of  them.  Assuredly 
when  we  do,  we  depart  from  his  teaching 
and  example  ;  we  bring  ourselves  into  a  very 
artificial,  visionary  state  of  feeling  ;  we  set 
aside  the  great  truth,  that  as  nothing  hu- 
man should  be  foreign  from  those  who  are 
partakers  of  humanity,  nothing  human  can 
be  foreign  from  Him  who  is  the  Head  of 
it.  The  lofty  expressions  of  contempt  for 
the  littleness  of  mere  earthly  transactions, 
and  the  vicissitudes  of  human  governments, 
which  some  divines  affect,  are  not  learnt  in 
his  school,  or  in  the  schools  of  his  prophets. 
They  rather  teach  us  to  be  ashamed  of  the 
cold  indifference  with  which  we  trace  his 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  41 

footsteps   and   listen   to   his   voice,    in   the 
present     aAd    past     history    of     mankind. 
Surely,  then,  we  are  not  to  condemn  those 
who  hope  for  the  cure  of  the  ills  which  they 
know  to  exist,  through  a  larger  and  Avider 
sympathy   in    civil   governors,    through    a 
deeper  knowledge  of  the  ends  for  which  the 
Church  exists,  and  a  more  faithful  use  of 
the  powers  with  which  she  is  endowed,  or, 
lastly,  from  the    manifestation    of    Him  to 
whom  State  rulers  and  Church  rulers  alike 
owe   homage.     All   these    expectations  are    • 
sustained,    not    crushed,  by  the  Word  and 
Spirit  of  God.     Without  divine  succor  and 
encouragement  they  must  have  perished  long 
ago,  to  our  great  misery,  under  the  pressure 
of  selfish  feelings  and  interests,  and  of  the 
despondency  which   experience,    not   pene- 
trated Avith  a  higher  principle,  brings  after 
it.     And  wherein  then  do  those  who  have 
cherished   these  expectations,  to  which  we 
owe  so  much  of  all  that  has  been  best  in 
th^  world,   seem   to   have  wandered   from 
his  guidance  who  justifies  their  higher  aspi- 
rations ?     In  this  respect,  I  think,  mainly. 
Our   Lord  speaks  of    his  Kingdom,  or  his 
Father's  Kingdom,  not  as  if  it  were  to  set 
aside  that  constitution   of   the  universe,  of 


42  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [Serm. 

which  men  had  seen  the  tokens  in  family 
and  national  institutions,  of  which  they  had 
dreamed  when  they  thought  of  a  higher 
and  more  general  fellowship ;  but  as  if  it 
were  that  very  constitution  in  the  fullness  of 
its  meaning  and  power.  He  who  is  the 
ground  of  the  world's  order,  He  in  whom 
all  things  consist,  reveals  Himself  that  we 
may  know  what  its  order  and  consistency 
are,  how  all  disorder  and  inconsistency  have 
arisen  from  the  discontent  and  rebellion  of 
our  wills.  Now  an  opposite  feeling  to  this 
seems  to  characterize  those  who  are  noticing 
the  present  distractions  of  the  world,  and 
are  suggesting  how,  in  this  day  or  hereafter, 
they  may  be  removed.  All  seem  to  assume 
that  the  constitution  of  things  is  evil ;  not 
that  we  are  evil  in  departing  from  it.  With 
strange  unanimity,  eager  politicians,  restless 
ecclesiastics,  hopeful  millennarians,  seem  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  the  devil  is  lord  of 
the  universe  :  only  that  by  an  improvement 
in  the  arrangements  of  civil  life,  by  a 
stronger  assertion  of  priestly  authority,  or 
by  the  final  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man,  the 
evil  power  may  be  weakened  or  broken. 
Which  sentiment,  by  whomsoever  enter- 
tained, is  surely  unchristian   and  ungodly. 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  43 

The  holiest  men  protested  against  it  before 
our  Lord's  coming.  Though  the  Kingdom 
was  not  yet  shown  to  be  a  kingdom  for  the 
whole  earth,  they  believed  that  it  was  ;  they 
declared  its  laws,  testified  that  heathens 
were  at  war  with  their  own  proper  ruler  ; 
told  the  chosen  race  that  by  their  evil  acts 
as  kings,  priests,  people,  they  were  breaking 
the  everlasting  covenant.  Any  other  lan- 
guage since  Christ  has  come  is,  practically, 
a  renunciation  of  his  authority,  and  a  denial 
of  his  incarnation.  Those  who  use  it  cannot 
effectually  connect  the  command  ''Repent" 
with  the  announcement  "  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  at  hand,"  though  our  Lord's 
example  forbids  us  ever  to  separate  them. 
For  they  caimot  say,  "  There  has  been  a 
holy,  blessed  order  among  you,  which  you 
have  been  darkening,  confounding,  hiding 
from  men,  by  your  sins  and  selfishness ;  but 
which  must  and  will  assert  itself,  in  spite 
of  you  and  of  all  that  resist  it."  Were 
this  mode  of  speaking  generally  adopted  by 
pastors  and  preachers,  their  hearers  might 
be  led  each  to  ask  himself.  What  have  I 
done  to  frustrate  the  ends  for  which  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  has  been  established 
upon  earth  ?  how  can  I  cease  my  strife  with 


44  THY  KINGDOM   COME.  [Serm. 

it,  and  become  its  obedient  subject  ?  a  ques- 
tion which,  instead  of  destroying  their  in- 
terest in  the  doings  of  the  world  generally, 
would  make  that  interest  practical  and  per- 
sonal ;  instead  of  lessening  their  hopes  of 
the  time  when  the  darkness  shall  pass  away 
and  the  true  light  shall  shine  out  fully, 
would  make  them  less  earnest  in  guessing 
about  it  than  in  preparing  for  it. 

II.  But  if  our  Lord  spoke  thus  of  his  King- 
dom, did  He  frown  upon  the  wishes  and  long- 
ings of  those  who  would  cast  this  world  be- 
hind them,  and  project  their  thoughts  wholly 
into  a  future  state  ?  So  far  as  anything  in 
their  anticipations  is  incompatible  with  an 
entire  recognition  of  the  sacredness  of  our  life 
here  ;  so  far  as  they  imply  the  Manichaean 
notion  that  the  earth,  or  the  flesh,  is  the 
devil's  creature  and  property  ;  so  far  as  they 
utter  a  merely  selfish  cry  for  escape  from 
toil  and  warfare  ;  He  certainly  gives  them 
no  encouragement,  who  hallowed  all  human 
life,  who  overcame  the  Evil  Spirit,  whose 
own  garments  were  dipped  in  blood.  But 
this,  we  must  all  confess,  is  only  the  dark 
and  feeble  side  of  a  faith  which  is,  in  itseK, 
gracious  and  inspiring.  To  despair  of  the 
present  must  be  bad  ;  to  hope  for  the  future 


ni.]  THY  KINGDOM   COME.  45 

must  be  good.  And  this  hope  our  Lord 
cherishes  and  confirms,  as  much  as  He  dis- 
owns that  despair.  Think  of  those  words 
which  came  with  such  power  to  the  mind  of 
a  scribe  who  had  maintained  the  doctrine  of  a 
resurrection  always,  but  had  probably  never 
before  felt  it  to  be  a  reality  :  "As  touching 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  have  ye  not 
read  what  was  spoken  to  you  by  God,  say- 
ing, I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  Isaac, 
and  Jacob  ?  He  is  not  the  God  of  the 
dead,  but  of  the  living  ;  for  all  live  unto 
Him."  What  are  all  speculations  about 
separate  states  and  intermediate  existences 
to  this  celestial  sentence  ?  Those  whom  you 
read  of  in  ages  gone  by,  who  sometimes 
stand  out  in  such  clear  individuality,  who 
sometimes  melt  into  shadows,  all  Hve;  for 
He  lives  from  whom  their  life  came.  Noth- 
ing of  it  is  departed,  only  the  death  which 
encompassed  it.  They  have  lost  no  person- 
ality. Here,  there  was  but  the  first  dawn 
of  it.  They  were  beginning  feebly  to  be 
conscious  of  powers  ;  to  recognize  distinc- 
tions ;  to  feel  after  unity.  He  was  educat- 
ing their  affections  through  the  first  stage 
of  infancy  ;  their  reason,  in  its  struggles  to 
know  its  object ;  their  will,  in  its  endeavors 


46'  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [Serm. 

to  be  obedient :  who  is  now  bringing  them 
into  more  wonderful  affinities,  infinitely 
deeper  apprehensions,  a  perfect  liberty.  And 
what  is  true  of  them  is  true  of  all  who  have 
yielded  to  the  same  guidance,  who  have 
desired  the  same  light.  All  live  to  Him, 
with  not  one  sympathy  impaired  or  raised 
too  high  for  human  interests.  With  Him, 
as  the  common  centre  of  all  their  thoughts 
and  adorations,  everything  which  He  be- 
stowed specially  upon  each  is,  necessarily, 
quickened  and  perfected,  and  finds  its  rela- 
tion to  the  gift  of  every  other.  With  Him 
as  their  centre  they  must  care  for  all  whom 
He  cares  for,  but  still,  one  would  suppose, 
be  knit  closest  in  all  bands  of  attachment 
and  service  to  those  with  whom  it  was  his 
pleasure,  by  holy  pledges  imperfectly  under- 
stood, to  unite  them  below.  Such  thoughts 
followed  out,  not  by  the  fancy,  but  by  the 
most  legitimate  reflection  upon  the  state 
which  must  remain  if  the  infirmities  an'd 
sins  of  earth  were  purged  away,  would  surely 
go  far  to  satisfy  men  who  have  learnt  to 
mourn  over  the  meanness  and  incoherency 
of  our  earthly  existence,  considered  by  itseK. 
And  our  Lord's  own  resurrection,  and  his 
appearances  to  his   disciples  after  He  was 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM   COME.  47 

risen,  which  were  so  brief,  and  yet  carried 
with  them  such  a  wonderful  witness  of  a 
perpetual  presence,  —  these  translate  his 
words  into  life,  and  declare  that  our  exist- 
ence is  not  rounded  with  a  sleep  ;  or  that 
it  is  a  sleep  in  Him  at  whose  voice  all  cre- 
ation was  first  awaked,  and  mil  awake 
again.  Witli  such  thoughts,  brethren,  we 
may  comfort  ourselves  when  we  pray,  "  Thy 
Kingdom  come."  But  we  must  not  think 
that  we  are  waiting  for  death  to  solve  a 
problem  which  is  not  solved  yet. ,  The  death 
of  Him  who  took  away  the  sins  of  the 
world  solved  it  at  once  and  forever ;  we 
only  die  to  understand  how  perfect  the  solu- 
tion is. 

in.  But  this  we  shall  not  understand  if 
we  suppose  that  while  our  Lord  sanctioned 
the  expectations  of  those  who  look  for  a  bet- 
ter government  of  this  world,  and  of  those 
who  look  for  a  world  after  death.  He  did 
not  include  in  his  gift  and  promise  the  satis- 
faction of  those  who  feel  that  they  want  not 
a  visible  kingdom,  but  a  Kingdom  of  right- 
eousness, truth,  love  ;  not  a  future,  but  an 
eternal  Kingdom.  To  them  and  to  their 
hopes  we  may  say  that  He  spoke  first.  He 
awakened  their  longing,  He  met  them  before 


48  THY  KINGDOM  COME.  [Serm. 

He  could  respond  to  the  others.  "  For 
now,"  said  John  the  Baptist,  '^the  axe  is 
laid  to  the  root  of 'the  trees."  He  who  is  at 
hand  is  not  coming  to  deal  with  external 
circumstances,  but  first  with  the  being  to 
whom  those  circumstances  belong.  Oiu- 
Lord  spoke  straight  to  the  conscience,  rea- 
son, will,  in  man,  which  were  asking  after 
the  Unseen,  which  were  seeking  for  a  Father. 
Even  by  his  bodily  cures  He  showed  that 
He  was  the  Lord  of  the  unseen  influences 
which  pro4uce  the  outward  signs  of  disease 
and  decay.  When  He  cast  out  evil  spirits, 
He  bore  witness  that  He  was  holding  con- 
verse with  the  spirit  of  man ;  that  with  the 
pride,  lust,  hatred,  the  powers  of  spiritual 
wickedness  in  high  places  which  have  en- 
slaved us.  He  was  carrymg  on  his  great 
controversy.  By  this  victory  He  accom- 
phshed  his  great  work.  He  manifested  forth 
the  true  state  and  glory  of  man,  as  the  child 
of  God,  and  the  inheritor  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  and  built  his  Church  upon 
that  foundation  of  his  own  divine  Humanity, 
against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail.  Here,  in  this  inner  region,  in  this 
root  of  man's  being,  He  is  still  subduing  his 
enemies,  He  is  conducting   his   mysterious 


III.]  THY  KINGDOM    COME.  49 

education.  To  that  which  He  cultivates 
within  us,  He  promises  the  great  reward, 
the  knowledge  of  Him  who  is,  and  was,  and 
is  to  come.  But  be  it  ever  remembered, 
that  while  He  gives  all  encouragement  to 
the  highest  desires  of  man's  heart  and  rea- 
son, He  gives  none  whatever  to  any  mys- 
tical conceits  and  imaginations.  ''  The  axe 
is  laid  to  the  root  of  the  tree  ;  therefore 
every  tree  which  bringeth  not  forth  good 
fruit  is  he^vn  do^vn  and  cast  into  the  fire.'* 
The  Kingdom  of  God  begins  within,  but  it 
is  to  make  itself  manifest  without.  It  is 
to  penetrate  the  feelings,  habits,  thoughts, 
words,  acts,  of  him  who  is  the  subject  of  it. 
At  last  it  is  to  penetrate  our  whole  social 
existence,  to  mould  all  things  according  to 
its  laws. 

For  this  we  pray  when  we  say,  "  Thy 
Kingdom  come."  We  desire  that  the  King 
of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords  Avill  reign  over 
our  spirits  and  souls  and  bodies,  which  are 
his,  and  which  He  has  redeemed.  We  pray 
for  the  extinction  of  all  tyranny,  whether 
lodged  in  particular  men  or  in  multitudes ; 
for  the  exposure  and  destruction  of  corrup- 
tions inward  and  outward  ;  for  truth  in  all 
departments  of  government,  art,  science ;  for 
4 


50  THY  KINGDOM  COME.       [Serm.  III. 

the  true  dignity  of  professions ;  for  right 
deahng-s  in  the  commonest  transactions  of 
trade  ;  for  blessings  that  shall  be  felt  in 
every  hovel.  We  pray  for  these  things, 
knowing  that  we  pray  according  to  God's 
will ;  knowing  that  He  will  hear  us.  If  He 
had  not  heard  this  prayer  going  up  from 
tens  of  thousands  in  all  ages,  the  earth 
would  have  been  a  den  of  robbers.  He  will 
so  answer  it,  that  all  which  He  has  made 
shall  become  as  it  was  when  He  beheld  it  on 
the  seventh  day,  and,  lo,  it  was  very  good. 


SERMON  ly. 

QUINQUAGESIMA  SUNDAY. 


Thy  Will    be   done,  as  ix  Heavex,  so   in  Eauth.  — 
Luke  xi.  2. 

nPHE  prayer  we  considered  last  week  could 
not  easily  be  separated  from  the  spec- 
tacle which  we   had   just  witnessed,   of   a 
fallen  kingdom.     Since  that  time  we  have 
been  watching  attempts  to  construct  a  new 
society  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old.     If  I  do 
not    mistake,   many   have   regarded    these 
experiments  with  greater  impatience,  with 
less   complacency,   than   the   events  which 
preceded  them,  and  made  them  necessary. 
Such  words  as  these  have  risen  very  readily 
to  our  lips :  "  What  a  weary  repetition  is 
here  of  a  thrice-told  tale  !    Is  it  possible  that 
phrases  which  have  been  tested  and  found 
hollow  nearly  sixty  years  ago,  are  still  fit 
for   use   and   circulation   now?     Can  it  be 
that  we  must  pass  through  another  series  of 


52  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

the  same  false  promises,  vain  hopes,  bitter 
disappointments,  the  same  dreams  of  peace 
realized  in  blood,  which  were  appointed  for 
the  last  generation  ? "  Not  to  entertain 
thoughts  of  this  kind  is  difficult  —  difficult 
even  not  to  give  them  expression.  Yet 
when  they  are  spoken  they  must  drive  others 
to  ask,  while  we  harbor  them,  does  not  the 
question  present  itself  to  ourselves,  —  Is  then 
the  belief  a  fantasy,  that  men  are  intended 
for  a  brotherhood  ?  Must  the  effort  to  re- 
alize it  terminate  in  ridicule  or  in  crime  ? 
Supposing  that  is  the  fact,  should  we  begin 
with  accusing  other  men  of  deception  ? 
Have  we  not  a  long  list  of  falsehoods  to  con- 
fess which  we  have  been  proclaiming  our- 
selves —  in  pulpits  especially  —  which  have 
been  proclaimed  throughout  Christendom 
for  nearly  1800  years  ? 

Such  an  inquiry  may  no  doubt  be  evaded 
by  the  reply  :  "  O  !  we  do  not  take  Chris- 
tianity into  account.  That^  of  course,  may 
affect  anything.  We  complain  of  those 
who  think  they  can  work  all  good  to  their 
species  without  it."  But  our  conscience 
will  not  be  so  appeased.  It  will  rejoin, 
*'  And  if  you  take  Christianity  into  account, 
what  then  ?     You  know  that  it  will  not  of 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  53 

course  set  the  world  right.  Do  you  believe 
seriously  in  your  heart,  that  it  can  set  the 
world  right  at  all,  under  any  conditions  ? 
If  not,  you  should  not  pretend  to  believe  it. 
Certainly  this  end  will  not  be  accomplished 
by  phrases  and  professions.  These  are  not 
the  least  better  when  they  are  coined  in  one 
mint  than  in  another.  It  does  not  help  us 
more  to  talk  of  brotherhood  on  Christian 
principles,  than  of  brotherhood  upon  any 
other  principles.  The  more  sacred  the  lan- 
guage the  more  offensive  is  any  trifling  use  of 
it.  We  must  not  blame  our  neighbors  for  try- 
ing to  make  men  brothers  without  the  Gos- 
pel, if  we  are  not  ourselves  convinced  that 
the  Gospel  can  make  them  so."  There  is 
still  another  resource  which  I  know  is  com- 
monly adopted  by  those  who  seek  to  escape 
from  this  difficulty.  They  say,  "  Chris- 
tianity declares  to  us  the  exceeding  sinful- 
ness of  the  human  heart  and  will.  There 
is  the  root  of  all  the  confusions  and  miseries 
of  the  world.  What  mockery  then  to  reform 
it  by  new  schemes  of  government  and  soci- 
ety." Christianity  does,  no  doubt,  declare 
to  us,  or  rather  assumes,  the  exceeding  sin- 
fulness of  man's  heart.  But  it  comes  not 
proclaiming  sin,  but  proclaiming  a  remedy 


54  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

for  it.  Do  we  believe  the  remedy  to  be 
effectual?  If  not,  in  what  sense  do  we 
call  ourselves  Christians  ?  If  we  do,  how 
dare  we  blaspheme  Christianity  by  calling 
her  to  prove  that  evil,  social  evil  or  individ- 
ual, is  inevitable  ?  We  cannot  then  avoid 
the  inquiry,  severe  though  it  must  be  to 
most  of  us,  What  have  you  meant  hitherto 
by  this  prayer,  "  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in 
heaven,  so  on  earth  ? "  What  have  you 
taken  the  Will  of  God  the  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  be  ?  How  do  you  sup- 
pose it  is  done  in  heaven  ?  What  is  implied 
in  asking,  that  even  so  it  may  be  done  on 
earth  ? 

I.  It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  identify 
this  petition  with  that  which  I  spoke  of  a 
fortnight  ago.  The  Name  denotes  that 
which  a  Person  is  in  Himself,  his  own  char- 
acter. This  is  an  object  of  contemplation ; 
it  is  to  be  hallowed.  A  Will  imports  energy 
going  forth  ;  it  points  to  action,  to  effect ; 
it  is  to  be  done.  It  is  very  needful  for  the 
clearness  of  our  mmds,  and  for  great  prac- 
tical results,  to  remember  this  distinction. 
But  it  is  equally  needful  to  remember  that 
the  name  and  the  will  exactly  correspond  to 
each  other,  that  at  all  events  in  a  perfect 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  55 

being  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  clashing 
or  contrariety  between  them.  Nay  more  ; 
if  the  name  be  that  which  has  been  revealed 
to  us  as  the  name  of  God ;  if  it  express 
goodness,  mercy,  loving-kindness,  we  cannot 
think  of  it  at  all  Avithout  thinking  of  a  ^vill, 
directed  towards  other  beings,  and  exer- 
cising itself  upon  them.  To  identify  Avill 
with  mere  sovereignty,  is  to  destroy  the 
earlier  petition.  We  cannot  hallow  the 
name  of  God  if  we  suppose  power  to  be  liis 
most  essential  characteristic,  or  the  manifes- 
tation of  power  to  be  his  cliief  delight. 
This  notion  of  Him  is  evidently  fashioned 
out  of  our  own  low  appetites  and  base  fan- 
cies ;  it  is  the  notion  whicli  lies  at  the  root  of 
the  dark  fables  of  heathenism.  The  whole 
Revelation  whicli  is  dehvered  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testament  is  nothing  else  than 
a  continuous  protest  against  it,  or  rather 
a  continuous  unfolding  of  the  truth  from 
which  it  is  a  departure.  It  assaults  the  nat- 
ural tendency  of  our  minds,  which  is  to  wor- 
ship all  the  different  shapes  and  appearances 
of  power  that  we  discern  in  the  world 
around  us  ;  it  leads  us  to  feel  that  we  need 
some  power  of  an  altogether  higher  and  dif- 
ferent kind  to  rule  ourselves ;  it  shows  us 


56  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

that  this  power  must  be  a  Will  ;  that  it 
must  be  moral ;  that  righteousness  must  be 
its  essence,  power  its  instrument.  A  God  of 
righteousness  and  truth,  just  and  without 
iniquity,  is  He  whom  the  Bible  speaks  of, 
He  who  presents  Himself  to  the  conscience, 
heart,  will,  of  his  creatures,  as  the  Author 
of  all  that  is  right  and  good  in  them  and  in 
the  universe. 

When  we  say.  Thy  Will,  this  must  be 
the  sense  in  which  our  Lord  would  have  us 
speak  the  words.  To  enter  into  the  in- 
most recesses  of  that  Will,  was  his  only,  who 
perfectly  delighted  in  it.  But  we  are  sure, 
that  were  it  possible  for  us  to  know  as  He 
knew,  we  should  not  discover  a  difference 
of  purpose,  another  kind  of  will  than  that 
which  his  acts  exhibited ;  we  should  only 
behold  that  infinite  abysmal  love,  which, 
through  our  evil  and  selfishness,  had  been 
hidden  from  us.  It  would  be  well  for  us, 
brethren,  if  we  were  more  careful  of  insult- 
ing the  Majesty  of  Heaven  in  our  confes- 
sions of  ignorance  as  well  as  in  our  boast  of 
knowledge.  We  have  no  right  to  say.  We 
are  such  poor  creatures,  we  cannot  tell  the 
least  what  are  the  designs  of  God ;  we  can 
only  submit  to  his  irresistible  pleasure.     It 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  57 

is  precisely  his  design  which  He  has  made 
known  to  us  ;  what  his  will  is  to  the  human 
race  and  each  of  his  members,  is  not  one  of 
the  secrets  which  He  witliholds  from  us  and 
from  our  children.  Nor  is  there  any  real 
awe  of  Him  Avhile  we  choose  to  think  our 
own  thoughts  about  it  instead  of  his,  whilst 
we  insist  upon  doing  homage  to  a  dreary, 
naked  Omnipotence.  For,  however  we  may 
fancy  that  there  is  something  at  once  hum- 
bUng  and  elevating  in  the  thought  of  that 
which  may  crush  and  may  uphold  us,  it  is 
not  a  contemplation  in  which  we  care  to 
abide  ;  the  spirit  within  us  soon  starts  up 
from  the  momentary  depression  it  has  caused, 
soon  betakes  itself  to  other  and  more  nat- 
ural ways  of  realizing  its  o^vn  dignity.  We 
want  a  mightier  charm  than  this  ;  we  want 
the  belief  and  knowledge  of  a  Will  that  is 
always  originating  and  effectuating  good  — 
good  and  nothing  else.  Before  such  a  Being,, 
the  spirit  of  man  trembles  ;  in  his  presence  it 
feels  its  own  nothmgness  ;  to  Him  it  can 
look  up,  and  be  sure  that  He  is  raising  it. 
Hence  comes  a  conviction,  not  of  weakness, 
but  of  sin  ;  the  sense,  not  that  we  have  been 
unable  to  resist,  but  that  we  have  actually 
resisted  that  power  which  is  workhig  for  the 


58  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

deliverance  and  blessedness  of  us  and  of  our 
whole  race.  A  power  we  shall  then  jojrfully 
confess  it  to  be,  when  we  know  that  it  is  not 
that  merely  or  principally.  We  could  not 
bear  to  suppose  —  it  would  be  the  most  fla- 
grant of  contradictions  —  that  a  perfectly  lov- 
ing will  was  ever  idle,  that  it  was  not  con- 
tinually energizing,  continually  accomphsh- 
ing  its  own  deep  and  gracious  ends.  Where 
the  limit  is  to  their  accomplishment,  how  is 
it  possible  that  a  creature  will  can  contend 
with  that  which  has  formed  it ;  by  what 
mysterious  concurrence,  which  cannot  be  un- 
derstood in  either  alone,  obedience  is  pro- 
duced out  of  rebellion  —  here  is  a  depth  in- 
deed, in  which  we  may  be  content  not  to 
see  our  way ;  here  is  that  secret  which, 
except  in  life  and  practice,  we  never  pene- 
trate. I  say,  except  in  life  and  practice ; 
for  we  can  and  do  know  in  our  own  experi- 
ence the  fact  of  resistance  and  the  law  of 
submission.  We  do  know  that  every  evil 
act  has  been  one  against  which  there  was  a 
divine  remonstrance  within  us  ;  we  do  know 
that  this  act  has  brought  disorder  and  con- 
tradiction after  it ;  we  do  know  that,  not  we 
ourselves,  but  He  who  has  curbed  us  and 
forewarned  us  of  the  evil,  has  wrought  the 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  59 

repentance  for  it ;  since  only  when  we  con- 
fessed the  wrong  and  cried  to  be  made  right 
were  we  brought  into  our  true  state.  Thus 
much  every  man  may  know  in  himself ;  but 
to  generalize  from  this  experience  is  a  more 
difficult  process  than  we  sometimes  suspect. 
The  logical  terms  in  which  we  express  our 
conclusions  are  even  less  adequate  to  describe 
the  subtle  operations  of  spirit  than  those  of 
nature  ;  Ave  should  not,  therefore,  suffer  them 
to  embarrass  us  either  in  our  dealinjis  with 
our  individual  consciences,  or  in  our  judg- 
ments respecting  the  purposes  of  God.  Gen- 
erahties  are  not  accurate  enougli  for  the-  one  ; 
they  are  far  too  narrow  for  the  other.  A 
man  cannot  be  honest  in  action  if  he  applies 
maxims  and  formulas  about  the  extent  of 
prescience  and  human  power  to  his  o^vn  par- 
ticular conduct ;  he  must  be  profane  and  false 
if  he  uses  them  to  measure  the  Eternal  Mind. 
By  a  strange  perversity  those  who  are  using 
their  intellects  to  determine  what  must  be 
the  acts  and  intentions  of  God,  resent  every 
appeal,  though  grounded  on  express  reve- 
lation, to  his  moral  nature  ;  as  if  it  im- 
plied that  we  were  circumscribing  Him  by 
our  own  imperfections.  But  this  appeal  is 
a  witness  against  all   such  circumscription. 


60  THY  WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

We  say,  that  we  must  acknowledge  the  abso- 
lute goodness  of  that  will,  which  was  mani- 
fested in  act  by  the  only  begotten  Son,  or 
we  shall  make  it  merely  the  image  of  our 
own.  We  must  have  an  invariable  standard 
to  which'we  can  refer  ourselves ;  or  we  shall 
make  ourselves,  with  all  our  variations  and 
contradictions,  the  standard.  We  must  not 
let  logical  formulas,  or  deductions  from  our 
own  experience,  and  the  world's  experience, 
or  possible  dangers,  or  the  fear  of  losing 
plausible  topics  of  declamation,  come  in  the 
way  of  the  strict  simple  use  of  this  prayer, 
or  force  us  to  mean  something  less  by  the 
words.  Thy  Will,  than  a  will  of  efficient 
good  to  every  creature ;  otherwise  we  shall 
either  be  contracting  our  own  love  within 
limits  which  God  commands  us  to  transgress, 
or  blasphemously  suppose  that  it  is,  at  some 
point  or  other,  greater  than  his.  At  all  haz- 
ards, in  despite  of  all  reasonings  and  all  au- 
thority, chng  to  the  prayer.  That  will  never 
do^you  harm,  or  lead  you  astray.  The 
more  we  use  it,  in  the  faith  that  the  Will 
we  ask  should  be  done  is  the  right  loving 
and  blessed  Will,  the  more  we  shall  know 
that  it  is,  the  more  we  shall  be  sure  that  it 
must  be  done.     We  shall  meet  every  day 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  61 

with  a  set  of  new  impediments  to  that  con- 
viction ;  at  times,  it  will  seem  the  most 
monstrous  and  incredible  of  all  convictions ; 
then  when  it  does,  the  prayer  is  specially 
needed  to  raise  us  above  the  plausible  lies 
of  our  understandings  ;  to  place  us  in  a  point 
of  view  whence  we  can  see  the  truth  which 
surmounts  them.  That  point  of  view  is  ob- 
tained when  our  state  is  the  lowliest ;  we 
must  sink,  not  rise,  if  we  would  feel  our  re- 
lation to  the  Will  which  is  guiding  all  crea- 
tion ;  the  Cross  is  at  once  the  complete  ut- 
terance of  the  prayer  and  the  answer  to  it. 

II.  For  it  is  the  Cross  which  tells  us  how 
this  Will  is  done  in  Heaven.  We  should  be 
giving  an  intelligible  sense  to  this  clause,  if 
we  took  heaven  in  its  simplest,  most  out- 
ward sense,  as  synonymous  with  what  we 
call  the  heavenly  bodies  ;  and  if  we  sup- 
posed the  prayer  to  be  that,  as  all  these 
silently  and  calmly  obey  the  law  which  was 
given  them  on  the  fourth  day,  so  the  volun- 
tary creatures  of  God,  who  have  set  his  will 
at  nought,  might  be  brought  into  a  submis- 
sion as  complete,  into  an  order  as  unbroken 
and  harmonious.  There  would  be  a  deep 
significance  in  such  a  petition,  though  we 
should  need  great  caution  to  prevent  it  from 


62  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm." 

turning  into  tlie  most  iincliristian  and  dread- 
ful of  all  desires  —  the  desire  to  be  free  from 
responsibility,  to  lose  our  wills,  to  become 
mere  natural  creatures.  And  I  do  not  think 
any  one  who  has  prayed  the  Lord's  Prayer 
ever  rested  in  this  interpretation,  even  if 
it  might  be  cherished  for  a  moment.  The 
general  feeling  of  Christian  people  has  been 
that  this  Will  is  done  in  heaven,  not  by 
blind  agents,  but  by  intelligent,  spiritual 
creatures ;  by  wills  which  might  have  fallen, 
but  which  stood  in  holy,  cheerful  obedience. 
Of  such  beings  Scripture  speaks  often  ;  their 
existence  it  assumes  throughout  ;  only  it 
does  not  indulge  us  with  any  such  account 
of  their  condition  and  circumstances  as 
would  lead  us  away  from  that  one  great 
truth  of  their  history,  in  which  all  others 
are  included  :  ''  They  do  his  commandments, 
hearkening  to  the  voice  of  his  words."  We 
have,  in  the  Bible,  no  description  of  celes- 
tial hierarchies  such  as  the  schoolmen  of  the 
Middle  Ages  were  wont  to  draw  out ;  above 
all,  no  allusions  to  the  angehc  nature,  in 
terms  so  common  in  more  modern  writers, 
which  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  it  was 
essentially  different  from  our  own.  The 
more  carefully  you  consider  the  passages  in 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  63 

Scripture  concerning  angels,  the  more  you 
will  be  struck  with  the  use  of  a  language 
which  seems  almost  to  confound  them  mth 
men.  And  why,  but  because  Scripture 
never  for  an  instant  contemplates  the  de- 
rangement of  man's  state,  which  is  the  con- 
sequence of  his  disobedience,  as  determining 
what  that  state  is.  It  looks  upon  the  un- 
fallen  creature,  or  the  creature  renewed 
after  the  fall,  as  the  proper  representative 
of  humanity  —  not  upon  one  Avho  is  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins  ;  it  never  treats  an 
anomaly  as  a  law.  "  Their  angels,"  says 
our  Lord,  *'  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my 
Father  in  heaven ;  for  the  Son  of  ^lan  is 
come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was 
lost."  The  true  form  of  human  existence 
and  society  has  not  perished  because  certain 
fragments  have  been  severed  from  it ;  the 
flock  was  not  destroyed  because  a  set  of 
sheep  had  wandered  from  it ;  only  He,  in 
whom  the  whole  harmony  stood  perfect, 
came  to  reunite  the  fragments  ;  the  Shep- 
herd came  into  the  wilderness  to  carry  home 
rejoicing  the  lost  one.  It  is  the  effect  of 
our  sin  to  make  us  look  upon  ourselves  as 
the  centres  of  the  universe  ;  and  then  to 
look  upon  the  perverse  and  miserable  acci- 


64  THY  WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

dents  of  our  condition  as  determining  what 
we  ourselves  are :  so  all  the  manifestations 
of  God  are  treated  as  if  they  were  merely- 
appropriate  to  those  accidents,  till  we  learn 
at  last  to  look  upon  sin,  not  as  that  which 
takes  us  out  of  the  harmony  God  has  estab- 
lished, but  as  that  which  has  been  able  to 
subvert  the  harmony,  to  frustrate  the  Di- 
vine Will.  To  feel  sin,  as  we  are  intended 
to  feel  it,  seems  almost  impossible  while  we 
adopt  this  scheme  ;  still  more,  to  feel  the 
might  and  mystery  of  redemption.  But  if 
we  contemplate  the  Son  of  Man  as  the  Lord 
of  the  unf alien  as  well  as  of  the  fallen  crea- 
tion, if  we  believe  that  He  perfectly  fulfilled 
that  Will  under  all  the  conditions  of  temp- 
tation and  misery  upon  earth,  which  He  had 
fulfilled  before  the  worlds  were,  our  minds 
become  quieter  and  more  hopeful.  Let 
Science  discover  to  us  as  many  myriads  of 
worlds  as  it  may  ;  let  each  of  these  myriads 
of  worlds  be  peopled  with  myriads  of  creat- 
ures ;  we  know,  if  they  are  involuntary^, 
they  are  subject  to  the  same  Will  which 
rules  every  animal  and  vegetable  on  this 
planet ;  if  they  are  voluntary,  their  state 
must  be  one  of  cheerful  dependence  upon 
that  Will,  or   else   of  rebellion   against  it. 


rV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  65 

There  must  be  an  order  for  them,  and  it 
must  be  a  blessed  order.  Space  and  time 
can  make  no  difference  in  that  which  con- 
cerns the  Eternal  government,  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  obedience,  disobedience,  redemp- 
tion. And  however  darkly  we  may  see  into 
these  things,  we  are  sure  of  this  prayer  "  as 
in  Heaven  ; "  we  are  sure  that  we  are  not 
presuming  when  we  believe  it  and  offer  it 
up.  As  we  do  so,  the  fetters  of  time  and 
space  become  more  and  more  loosened 
through  his  might  who  wilhngly  took  them 
upon  Himself,  and  then  ascended  up  on 
high,  leading  captivity  captive,  that  He 
might  fill  all  things.  It  becomes  no  hard 
effort  to  suppose  the  existence  of  multitudes 
of  blessed  creatures,  formed  and  kept  in  the* 
image  of  Him  who  said,  '*  Even  so.  Father, 
for  so  it  seemed  good  in  thy  sight ;  "  or  to 
believe  that  mysteries  of  love  have  been  re- 
vealed to  them,  through  our  fall  and  redemp- 
tion, which  they  desire  more  deeply  to  look 
into  ;  or  to  feel  that  they  must  rejoice  over 
one  sinner  who  repenteth. 

in.  And  therefore  the  prayer  may  well 
go  on,  "  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on 
earth."  Holding  fast  the  testimony  of  Christ 
respecting  his  Father's  Will ;  believing  that 


66  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

it  is  continually  at  work  to  execute  its  pur- 
poses ;  believing  that  there  are  multitudes  of 
wills  in  whom  it  does  work  effectually,  tri- 
umphantly, who  obey  it  and  are  free  ;  believ- 
ing, lastly,  that  He  who  guides  them,  and  to 
whom  they  do  homage,  has  taken  account  of 
this  earth  for  the  purpose'  of  restoring  those 
who  dwell  upon  it  to  submission,  liberty, 
unity,  we  can  ask  without  fear  that  -all  which 
resists  this  Will  in  one  place  or  another  may 
be  brought  to  acquiesce  in  it,  and  to  become 
its  cheerful  servant  and  child.  If  place 
makes  no  difference  in  the  view  which  we 
take  of  those  who  confess  this  Will  and  yield 
themselves  to  it,  place  can  make  no  difference 
in  its  power  of  reaching  and  subduing  those 
"who  have  been  refractory.  There  is  nothing, 
surely,  in  this  fair  earth  to  make  it  an  unfit 
dwelling  for  all  that  is  pure  and  gracious. 
It  is  the  revolted  will  which  interposes  the 
one  barrier  to  all  communications  from  above, 
to  union  and  fellowship  below.  The  selfish, 
self-seeking  spirit  says,  "  Thy  will  be  not 
done  ;  "  love  shall  not  have  dominion  here : 
supposing  that  demon  cast  out,  supposing  the 
spirit  of  man  brought  to  desire  that  it  should 
serve  in  heaven,  instead  of  reigning  in  hell ; 
and  the  earth,  the  battle-field  between  them, 


IV.]  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  67 

which  Christ  won  when  He  gave  up  Him- 
self, becomes  not  potentially  but  actually 
God's,  by  its  own  acknowledgment,  as  well 
as  by  his  victory.  And  we  know,  assuredly, 
that  spirits  which  have  yielded  themselves 
to  the  tyranny  of  the  evil  power  are,  day  by 
day,  set  free  from  its  yoke  ;  that  God,  by  the 
mighty  instruments  which  He  has  ^vrested 
out  of  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  by  indi- 
vidual sorrows,  by  national  calamities,  does 
lead  men  to  feel  that  it  is  better  to  live  in 
their  Father's  house,  than  to  feed  upon  husks, 
or  to  starve.  If  we  do  not  think  so,  why  do 
we  use  this  prayer  ?  what  sense  is  there  in 
it  ?  what  hope  can  we  have  from  it  ?  If  we 
confess  so  much,  how  can  we  ever  make  it  a 
charge  against  any  people,  that  they  hope 
for  a  brotherhood  upon  earth  ?  To  tell  them, 
if  that  is  the  case,  that  they  are  not  resting 
their  expectations  on  a  safe  ground;  that 
there  is  no  brotherhood,  unless  we  begin  with 
confessing  a  Father  ;  that  we  must  attain  it 
by  giving  up  ourselves  to  do  his  Will ;  that 
if  we  set  up  our  own,  we  are  enthroning  the 
very  principle  which  has  made  all  unity  im- 
possible :  this  is  right,  this  is  benevolent. 
But  we  have  scarcely  a  right  to  dispossess  a 
man  of  a  pleasant  dream  unless  we  can  give 


68  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.  [Serm. 

him  a  reality  in  place  for  it ;  for  every  hope 
points  upwards  ;  if  it  does  not  find  an  object, 
it  is  in  search  of  one ;  you  cannot  crush  it 
without  robbing  your  fellow-creature  of  a 
witness  for  God,  and  an  instrument  of  puri- 
fication. I  do  not  mean  that  falsehood  can 
ever  do  good  to  a  human  soul,  or  be  anything 
except  a  curse  to  it ;  but  I  mean  that  hope  is 
a  deliverance  out  of  the  falsehoods  of  sense, 
and  that  there  is  a  truth  always  correspond- 
ing to  it,  which  is  missed,  not  because  the 
hope  is  too  strong,  but  because  inconsistent 
elements  are  mingled  with  it,  which  weaken 
and  debase  it.  Therefore  let  us  labor  dili- 
gently to  clear  ourselves  of  all  such  mixtures. 
One  I  referred  to  before,  and  will  speak  of 
now.  We  say  that  Christianity  can  bring 
about  a  true  fraternity  among  men.  But 
this  is  an  elliptical  mode  of  speech,  and  may 
be  a  misleading  one.  Christianity,  as  a  mere 
system  of  doctrines  or  practices,  will  never 
make  men  brothers.  By  Christianity  we 
must  understand  the  reconciliation  of  man- 
kind to  God  in  Christ ;  we  must  understand 
the  power  and  privilege  of  saying,  "  Our 
Father — thy  Will  be  done  in  earth  as  it 
is  in  heaven."  No  notion,  or  set  of  notions, 
will  bind  us  together  ;  He  binds  us  who  has 


IV.]  THY    WILL  BE  DONE.  69 

given  his  Son  for  us  all,  that  we  might  not 
live  forever  in  separation  from  Him  and  from 
each  other.  There  is  another  error  which 
is,  perhaps,  in  practice,  even  more  fatal.  We 
.are  apt  to  say,  "  These  large  schemes  of  the 
universe,  which  we  hear  so  much  of,  are  vain  ; 
what  good  can  come  of  them  ?  let  us  try  to 
do  our  duty  each  m  his  own  sphere."  An 
excellent  resolution  ;  but,  too  often,  adopted 
merely  in  spite,  and  therefore  leading  to  no 
result.  We  exalt  the  little  for  the  sake  of 
disparaging  the  large  ;  presently  we  grow 
weary  of  not  doing  more  ;  we  fly  back  to 
great  schemes  which  we  have  pronounced 
abortive  ;  because  we  find  them  so  we  do 
nothing.  Tliis  prayer  meets  us  at  each 
point ;  it  will  not  allow  us  to  escape  by  one 
pretext  or  the  other.  It  does  not  treat  the 
projects  of  men  for  universal  societies,  un- 
bounded pantisocracies,  as  too  large.  It 
overreaches  them  all  with  these  words,  "  As 
in  Heaven."  It  opens  to  us  the  vision  of  a 
society,  in  which  angels  and  archangels,  and 
the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect,  are 
citizens,  and  in  which  we  too  have  an  inher- 
itance. It  does  not  look  upon  any  homely 
individual  task  of  self-sacrifice  as  insignifi- 
cant :  "  So  upon  earth  "  meets  every  such 


70  THY   WILL  BE  DONE.        [Serm.  IV. 

case,  and  reminds  us  that  the  lowliest  tasks 
beseem  the  disciples  of  Him  who  "  took  upon 
Him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  found 
in  fashion  as  a  man."  "  Thy  Will  be  done  " 
reconciles  the  high  and  the  mean ;  the  Will  of  ^ 
Him  who  created  the  heavens,  and  stretched 
them  out ;  the  Will  of  Him  who  was  born  in 
the  manger ;  the  Will  of  that  Spirit  of  Holi- 
ness in  whom  they  are  eternally  one. 


SERMON  y. 

FIRST  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 
Give  us  this  Day  our  daily  Bread.  —  Matthew  vi.  11. 

T^HERE  are  many  points  of  view  from 
-*-  which  this  season  of  Lent  may  be  re- 
gard(?d.  One  of  them  is  given  us  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Gospel  for  to-day.  The 
Tempter  said  to  Jesus,  "  If  thou  be  the  Son 
of  God,  command  that  these  stones  be  made 
bread."  He  answered,  "It  is  written,  Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every 
word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God  shall  men  live."  If  these  last  words 
had  declared  that  man  does  not  live  by 
bread,  they  would  have  been  naturally  con- 
strued to  mean  that  he  has  a  higher,  more 
mysterious  life  than  that  of  his  body ;  one 
requiring  a  diviner  nourishment.  But  this 
sense,  though  it  may  be  latent  in  the  answer, 
has  not  generally  been  felt  to  arise  imme- 
diately out  of  it.     That  the  most  perfect 


72  GIVE   us    THIS  DAY  [Serm. 

man  does,  in  some  sense,  live  by  bread,  was 
shown  by  our  Lord's   hungering.     He  did 
not   exalt   himself  above   the  conditions  of 
creatures  with  bodies,  dying  bodies ;  those 
conditions  He  entered  into.     It  was  to  his 
weakness,  to  his  suffering,  that  the  Tempter 
spoke.     And  the  reply  did  not  move   the 
question  to  a  different  ground,  but  met  it  on 
its  own  ground.     Man's  hod^  lives  not  by 
bread  alone,  but  by  the  Word  which  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of   the   mouth  of   God.     This 
was,  obviously,   the   first   intention   of  the 
language  when  it  was  used  by  Moses.  •  The 
manna  proved  to  the  Israelites  that  their 
support  came  from  the  Word  of  God.    That 
Word  did  not  sustain  them  without  visible 
food ;  but  it  conferred  upon  the  visible  thing 
its  power  of  sustaining  them.     Take  away 
the  life-giving  Word,  which  proceeded  out  of 
the  mouth  of  God,  and  the  httle  round  thing 
which  lay  upon  the  ground  would  have  been 
useless.     This   lesson  they  were  to  lay  to 
heart ;  the  pot  of  manna  in  the  tabernacle 
was  to  remind  them  of  it  when  they  were 
come  into  the  promised  land,  and  were  eat- 
ing bread  made  by  various  processes  from 
the  corn  which   they  had  themselves  sown 
and  reaped.     They  were  not  to  think  that 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  73 

this  derived  its  nourishing  power  less  from 
the  Word  of  God  than  the  manna  which 
their  fathers  ate  in  the  wilderness.  They 
were  not  to  suppose  that  this  bread  had  any 
virtue  of  its  own  more  than  the  other.  Its 
virtue  lay  in  its  fitness  for  the  creature  whom 
God  had  endued  with  a  life  incomparably 
more  wonderful  than  that  of  the  corn,  won- 
derful as  that  is ;  wonderful  as  is  its  capacity 
of  growth,  maturity,  conversion  into  a  mate- 
rial quite  unlike  itself ;  wonderful  as  is  the 
whole  relation  of  the  vegetable  to  the  animal 
substance.  Rightly  reflected  on,  this  bread 
contained  a  deeper,  more  comprehensive, 
revelation  of  God  than  the  manna.  But, 
because  deeper  and  more  comprehensive, 
therefore  less  adapted  to  an  infant  nation, 
which  had  been  sensualized  and  debased 
by  animal  and  vegetable  worship,  and  by 
the  slavery  which  must  accompany  it. 
Such  a  people  have  to  begin  at  the  alpha- 
bet ;  they  must  be  taught  by  the  falling 
of  food  from  Heaven,  that  they  depend 
upon  an  invisible  Person,  a  sure  Friend, 
who  cares  for  them  ;  not  upon  the  hard, 
material  thing  which  will  not  come  to 
them  when  they  ask  for  it ;  which  they  will 
be  least  able  to  procure  when  they  treat  it 


74  GIVE   us   THIS  DAT  [Serm. 

with  most  reverence.  But  that  truth  had 
need  to  be  fixed  in  their  hearts,  again  and 
again,  in  different  stages  of  their  history,  by 
•methods  adapted  to  those  stages.  In  the 
city  as  much  as  in  the  wilderness;  when 
they  had  grown  old  in  a  settled  independ- 
ence, as  much  as  when  they  had  just  es- 
caped from  the  flesh-pots  of  Egypt ;  in  the 
monotony  of  ease,  as  much  as  when  every- 
thing around  them  spoke  of  famine,  and 
drought,  they  would  be  assailed  by  material- 
ism and  unbelief  ;  they  would  be  in  danger 
of  losing  all  thought  of  an  unseen  Protector. 
Therefore  the  heavens  would  become  brass, 
and  the  earth  iron,  the  locust  and  the 
palmer-worm  would  eat  up  the  fruits  of  the 
ground,  the  Philistine,  or  the  Assyrian, 
would  lay  it  waste  for  the  same  reason  that 
the  manna  had  fallen  in  the  sight  of  their 
fathers ;  to  show  them  that  they  lived  by 
the  Word  which  proceeded  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God,  and  not  by  any  necessary  fertility 
in  the  soil,  or  special  exemption  from  the 
plagues  of  Egypt,  or  any  strength  in  their 
hands  or  in  their  wit.  There  might  come, 
in  the  latter  days  of  the  nation,  even  a 
harder  and  more  desperate  condition  than 
that  which  is  the   result  of  men's  natural 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  75 

inclination  to  trust  in  things  seen,  and  in 
the  works  of  their  own  hands.  A  stiff  rehg- 
ious  formalism,  a  comfortable  conceit  that 
they  were  going  on  with  suitable  decency 
through  a  round  of  appointed  services,  or, 
were  acquiring  merit  by  acts  of  voluntary 
supererogatory  devotion,  might  make  the 
heaven  brass  and  the  earth  iron  in  another 
sense.  All  real  communication  might  be 
cut  off  between  them  ;  the  Lord  of  all  might, 
be  exhibited  as  a  tyrant  to  be  won  over  by 
presents  and  bribes  ;  the  heart  which  should 
receive  his  grace  might  become  utterly  im- 
penetrable. In  such  a  period  of  the  history 
of  the  Jews,  our  Lord  appeared  among 
them  ;  at  such  a  time  the  voice  from  Heaven 
said,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,"  and  the 
voice  from  hell,  "  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God, 
command  that  these  stones  be  made  bread." 
At  such  a  time.  He  claimed  to  be  the  Son 
of  God,  not  because  He  could  make  stones, 
bread,  but  because  He  could  stand  on  the. 
old  promise,  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth 
out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  And  having 
thus  asserted  his  own  filial  dependence  and. 
filial  faith,  and  having  claimed  the  privilege 
of  dependence  and  faith,  not  for  Himself 


76  GIVE   us   THIS  DAT  [Serm. 

but  for  man  ;  He,  who  came  as  the  firstborn 
of  many  brethren,  could  say  to  the  band  of 
fishermen,  his  disciples,  "  After  this  man- 
ner, therefore,  pray  ye  :  Our  Father  —  give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread."  That  child- 
like petition  was  the  fruit  of  liis  Baptism, 
Fasting,  and  Temptation. 

The  forty  days  then  which  bring  that 
Fasting  and  Temptation  to  our  mind,  are 
given  us  especially  that  we  may  be  taught 
how  to  pray  this  prayer.  Those  who  find 
it  quite  easy,  in  all  circumstances  of  indul- 
gence and  comfort,  to  believe  that  they  re- 
ceive their  bread  from  God  ;  who,  when  it 
is  most  abundant,  ask  Him  as  to  give  it 
—  meaning  what  they  say  —  have  not,  per- 
haps, any  call  to  self-restraint.  But  there 
are  some  who  know,  in  their  consciences,  that 
they  are  apt  to  mock  God  when  they  speak 
these  solemn  words,  —  apt  to  take  food  and 
every  other  blessing  as  if  it  were  their  right, 
of  which  no  power  in  heaven  or  earth  except 
by  sheer  injustice  can  deprive  them.  Some- 
thing which  shall  tell  them  of  dependence, 
some  secret  reminiscence,  insignificant  to 
others,  that  all  things  are  not  their  own  ; 
some  hint  that  there  are  a  few  milhon  creat- 
ures of  their  flesh  and   blood  who  cannot 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  77 

call  any  of  these  things  their  own,  is  needful 
for  them.  If  it  comes  in  the  form  of  pun- 
ishment sent  specially  to  themselves,  they 
cannot  say  it  was  not  wanted  ;  if  it  is  a  voice 
addressed  generally  to  the  whole  Church,  a 
season  returning  year  by  year,  they  cannot 
pretend  that  there  are  any  satisfactory  rea- 
sons why  they  should  close  their  ears  to  it. 
What  they  ought  to  desire  is,  that  they  may 
keep  the  end  in  sight ;  so  they  will  never 
reckon  means,  of  whatever  kind  they  be,  of 
any  value  for  their  own  sakes  ;  they  will  not 
fancy  that  to  abstain  from  food  is  more 
meritorious  in  God's  sight,  than  to  eat  it ; 
if  in  either  case,  equally,  they  are  desiring 
to  recollect  that  it  is  a  good  which  He 
bestows.  Above  all,  they  will  feel  that, 
whatever  else  Lent  is,  it  is  certiiinly  a  time 
of  confession,  and  their  great  hope  of  being 
ever  able  to  use  this  prayer  more  faithfully 
must  be  grounded  on  an  examination  of  the 
causes  which  have  made  it  so  unreal  in  times 
past.  Let  us  look  manfully  at  some  of  these 
causes  this  afternoon  ;  if  we  study  the  peti- 
tion, we  shall  not  be  long  in  discovering 
them. 

I.  It  may  seem  strange  that  I  should  put, 
first  of  all,  our  unwillingness  to  acknowledge 


78  GIVE   us   THIS  DAY  [Serm. 

God  as  a  Giver  ;  our  inclination  to  think  of 
Him  rather  as  an  Exactor.  Such  a  charge 
will,  I  know,  sound  to  some  most  para- 
doxical. "  What !  "  they  will  say,  "  do  you 
affirm  that  people  in  this  day  like  especially 
to  be  reminded  of  the  duties  that  are  re- 
quired of  them,  and  dislike  to  be  reminded 
of  the  gifts  and  mercies  which  they  may 
expect  with  or  without  the  performance  of 
those  duties  ?  Is  not  precisely  the  oppo- 
site error  that  to  which  our  age  is  prone  ? 
Are  we  not  most  restless  and  impatient 
when  we  are  told.  Such  things  you  ought 
to  do  ;  Such  men  you  ought  to  be ;  most 
eager  to  receive  the  comfortable  assurance 
that  we  may  rest,  for  that  God's  grace 
is  everything  —  man's  energy  nothing  ?  " 
Those  who  make  this  objection  show  that 
they  have  considerable  experience,  both  of 
other  men's  infirmities  and  of  their  own. 
That  a  certain  languor,  not  incompatible 
with  much  fever  but  one  of  its  symptoms,  is 
characteristic  of  our  time,  I  should  indeed 
be  afraid  to  deny.  We  cannot  feel  it  our- 
selves without  being  conscious  that  it  is 
abroad.  That  when  we  are  indisposed  to 
strenuous  effort,  we  often  take  refuge  in 
theories,  religious   or  philosophical,   which 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  79 

disparage  it,  or  represent  it  as  needless,  is 
also  indisputable.  We  try  stimulants  first, 
then  opiates  ;  and  each  empiric,  who  would 
suggest  a  new  one,  may  reasonably  speculate 
upon  the  failure  of  the  last.  But  where  did 
this  listlessness  begin  ?  what  is  the  root  of 
it  ?  Our  Lord  puts  this  interpretation  of 
it  into  the  mouth  of  one  who  had  exliibited 
it  and  wished  to  justify  it  thus :  "  I  knew 
thee  that  thou  wert  an  hard  man,  reaping 
where  thou  didst  not  sow,  and  gathering 
where  thou  didst  not  strew ;  therefore  I  hid 
thy  talent  in  the  earth  ;  lo  !  there  tliou  hast 
that  is  thine."  If  we  can  trust  Him  who 
knew  what  was  in  man,  the  two  accusations 
are  not  inconsistent ;  we  may  be  very  slow 
in  listening  to  calls  of  duty,  and  the  reason 
may  be  that  we  regard  Him  who  calls  us  an 
Exactor,  not  a  Giver.  I  press  this  confes- 
sion before  all  others,  not  only  because  the 
first  word  of  the  Prayer  suggests  it,  but 
because  I  believe  we,  the  ministers  of  God, 
are  more  bound  to  make  it  than  other  men. 
We  have  thought,  it  seems  to  me,  that  our 
chief  business  was  to  persuade  and  conjure 
and  argue  and  frighten  men  into  a  notion 
and  feeling  of  their  responsibiUties  ;  whereas 
our  chief  business  is,  assuredly,  to  proclaim 


80  GIVE   US   THIS  DAY  [Serm. 

the  name  of  God  ;  to  set  that  before  our 
fellow-creatures  in  its  f uUness  and  reality  ; 
80  to  convince  them  of  their  sin  ;  so  to  teach 
them  how  they  may  be  delivered  from  it. 
Being  very  eager  to  make  out  a  case  against 
mankind,  comparatively  indifferent  about 
the  assertion  and  vindication  of  the  Divine 
character,  we  have  failed  in  one  object  quite 
as  much  as  the  other.  We  have  not  dared 
to  speak  of  God  broadly,  simply,  absolutely, 
as  a  Giver,  lest  we  should  thereby  weaken 
his  claim  upon  man's  obedience  ;  whereas 
this  is  his  claim  upon  their  obedience  :  in 
this  way  He  enforces  his  claim.  Thus  we 
have  begotten  in  men  a  feeling  that  they  are 
obliged  to  do  something  which  they  cannot 
do.  A  struggle  ensues,  passionate,  irregu- 
lar, hopeless,  after  an  unattainable  prize ; 
then  bitter  discontent  and  murmuring 
against  Him  who  seems  to  have  created  us 
for  vanity  and  wretchedness. 

See  how  this  consideration  affects  the 
petition  for  daily  bread.  If  we  dared  to 
look  upon  God  as  a  Giver  in  the  full,  free, 
intelligible  sense  of  the  words,  we  should,  in 
asking  for  bread,  feel  that  we  were  asking 
for  the  power  and  energy  wherewith  to  work 
for  it.     We  should  say  to  ourselves  :  "  This 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  81 

is  the  law  under  which  God  has  put  the 
universe,  a  merciful  and  good  law,  which  if 
man  is  able  to  evade  as  he  is  in  some  regions 
of  exuberant  fertihty,  the  seeming  privilege 
turns  out  to  be  his  curse.  It  is  desiring  a 
stone,  and  not  bread,  to  desire  that  we  ma}^ 
have  all  we  want  without  the  sweat  of  our 
brow  ;  and  such  a  stone  the  Father  will  not 
give  us.  But  when  we  desire  the  will  to 
toil,  and  the  wisdom  to  toil,  and  the  strength 
to  toil,  and  the  fruit  of  toil,  we  plead  as  men 
with  Him  who  desires  that  we  should  sub- 
due the  earth  and  replenish  it,  because  He 
has  made  us  in  his  image,  and  would  have 
us  share  his  work  and  his  rest.  Then  we 
ask  according  to  his  ^vill,  and  He  heareth  us. 
Then  does  the  earth  bring  forth  and  bud, 
and  God,  even  our  o^vn  God,  blesses  us. 
We  are  not  the  creatures  of  chance  ;  we  are 
not  the  slaves  of  a  Pharaoh  ;  we  are  doing 
the  blessed  command  of  Him  who  created 
the  ground  and  man  to  inhabit  it."  How 
entirely  then  does  the  life  and  sense  of  this 
passage  depend  upon  those  which  have  gone 
before  it !  If  we  misrepresent  the  Name  of 
God,  and  the  Will  of  God,  how  inevitably 
does  this  petition  for  bread  turn  to  evil 
instead  of  good.     If  we  will  think  of  Him, 


82  GIVE   US   THIS  DAY  [Serm. 

not  as  the  Scripture  and  the  Church  teach 
us  to  think  of  Him,  as  the  Author  and  Giver 
of  all  things,  but  only  as  one  who  demands 
so  much  work  of  us,  and  offers  so  much  pay 
in  return,  we  fold  our  hands  in  indolence 
and  despair ;  we  cannot  love  that  which  He 
commands,  or  desire  that  which  He  prom- 
ises. Let  us  confess,  then,  this  sin  first, 
that  we  have  slandered  his  holy  Name,  not 
believing  that  He  gives  to  all  men  Hberally, 
and  upbraideth  not. 

II.  If  we  think  of  God  as  an  Exactor  and 
not  a  Giver,  exactors  and  not  givers  shall  we 
be.  And  so  the  word  us  acquires  a  very 
contracted  signification  indeed.  The  prayer 
will  express  a  hope  that  we,  who  are  suffi- 
ciently well  supplied  with  all  necessaries 
and  comforts,  may  never  be  stinted  of  them  ; 
it  will  express  a  lazy  half -formed  wish  that 
people,  who  have  none  of  our  comforts  and 
little  of  what  we  call  necessaries,  may  not 
quite  starve.  Think  what  meaning  it  must 
have  had  when  it  was  offered  up  by  that 
band  in  Jerusalem,  after  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost, who  were  of  one  heart  and  one  soul, 
eating  their  bread  with  joy  and  singleness  of 
heart.  They  will  have  understood  it  to  be 
indeed  a  petition  to  the  Father,  who  had  so 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  83 

loved  them  as  to  give  his  only-begotten  Son 
for  them,  and  who  had  filled  them  with  his 
o^vn  Spirit,  that  He  would  give  them  that 
which  they  needed  for  body  and  soul ;  would 
give  it  them  under  that  condition  of  which 
I  spoke  just  now  ;  and  under  this  further 
condition,  that  each,  upon  whom  the  Lord 
bestowed  superfluity,  should  hold  himself  a 
steward,  and  distribute  his  bounties.  As 
the  first  principle  which  united  bread  and 
work  together  had  been  proved,  by  a  long 
experience,  to  be  a  blessed  one,  so  the  sec- 
ond they  will  have  felt  to  be  the  fulfilbnent 
of  Christ's  promise,  that  they  should  be 
children  of  his  Father  in  heaven  ;  that  they 
should  be  gracious  and  merciful  as  He  is. 
Without  the  one  the  Church  would  have 
been  a  hive  of  drones ;  without  the  second 
it  would  have  been  a  collection  of  separate 
bees,  each  working  for  itself,  bringing  in 
its  contribution  to  a  common  stock,  but 
wanting  the  sweetness  of  affection,  sympa- 
thy, subordination.  Will  it  be  said  that  the 
law  of  that  Church  was  never  intended  to  be 
perpetual;  that  even  in  apostolical  history 
there  are  few  vestiges  of  it  after  the  Church 
had  diffused  itself  beyond  a  single  city  or 
province  ?     I  answer :  the  accidents  of  that 


84  GIVE   us    THIS  DAY  [Skrm. 

Jerusalem  Church  were  indeed  transitory ; 
more  transitory  than  the  fall  of  the  manna 
in  the  camp  of  Israel ;  but  the  law  which 
those  accidents  made  known  was  as  per- 
manent a  law  as  that  which  the  manna  re- 
vealed. The  selling  of  houses  and  lands 
was  only  one  exhibition  of  a  state  of  mind, 
an  exhibition  never  enforced,  as  St.  Peter 
told  Ananias.  But  the  principle  impHed  in 
the  words,  "  No  man  said  that  which  he  had 
was  his  o^vn,"  is  the  principle  of  the  Church 
in  all  ages :  its  members  stand  while  they 
confess  tliis  principle  ;  they  fall  from  her 
communion  when  they  deny  it. 

Property  is  holy,  distinction  of  ranks  is 
holy ;  so  speaks  the  Law,  and  the  Church 
does  not  deny  the  assertion,  but  ratifies  it. 
Only  she  must  proclaim  this  other  truth,  or 
perish.  Beneath  all  distinctions  of  property 
and  of  rank  lie  the  obligations  of  a  common 
Creation,  Redemption,  Humanity  ;  and  these 
are  not  mere  ultimate  obligations  to  be  con- 
fessed when  the  others  are  fulfilled.  They 
are  not  vague  abstractions,  which  cannot 
quite  be  denied,  but  which  have  no  direct 
bearing  upon  our  actual  daily  existence ; 
they  are  primary,  eternal  bonds,  upon  which 
all  others  depend ;  they  are  not  satisfied  by 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  ^ 

some  nominal  occasional  act  of  homage  ;  they 
demand  the  fealty  and  service  of  a  Ufe  ;  all 
our  domgs  must  be  witnesses  of  them.  The 
Church  proclaims  tacitly  by  her  existence 
—  she  should  have  proclaimed  openly  by  her 
voice  —  that  property  and  rank  are  held 
upon  this  tenure  ;  that  they  can  stand  by  no 
other.  Alas !  she  lias  not  spoken  out  this 
truth  clearly  and  strongly  here  or  anywhere. 
She  has  fancied  that  it  was  her  first  work 
to  protect  those  who  could  have  protected 
themselves  well  enough  without  her,  pro- 
vided she  had  been  true  to  her  vocation  of 
caring  for  those  whom  the  world  did  not 
care  for,  of  watching  over  them  continually, 
of  fitthig  them  to  be  citizens  of  any  society 
on  earth,  by  showing  them  what  is  imphed 
in  the  heavenly  filial  citizenship  into  which 
God  has  freely  adopted  them.  Failing  in 
this  duty,  she  has  become  powerless  for  the 
one  she  ignominiously  preferred.  She  can 
give  but  feeble  help  to  the  rich  m  their  hour 
of  need,  because  she  ministered  to  them  with 
such  sad  fideUty  in  then-  hour  of  triumph 
and  prosperity.  She  can  scarcely  make  her 
voice  heard  against  schemes  for  reducing  all 
things  to  a  common  stock,  for  establishing  a 
fellowship  upon  a  law  of  mutual  selfishness, 


86  GIVE   us   THIS  DAY  [Sebm. 

because  she  has  not  believed  that  the  in-, 
ternal  communion,  the  law  of  Love,  the 
polity  of  members  united  in  one  Head,  of 
brethren  confessing  a  common  Father,  is  a 
real  one  —  has  left  people  to  fancy  that  it  is 
only  a  fine  dream,  a  cruel  mockery,  inca- 
pable of  bringing  any  tangible  blessings. 
If  she  can  yet  avert  such  a  calamity,  it  must 
be  by  calling  upon  all  of  us  her  members  to 
confess  the  insincerity  with  which  we  have 
uttered  these  words,  "  Give  us  our  daily 
bread."  If  we  had  understood  that  we 
were  children  of  one  Father,  and  were  ask- 
ing Him  to  bless  all  the  parts  of  his  family, 
while  we  were  seeking  blessings  for  ourselves, 
that,  in  fact,  we  could  not  pray  at  all  with- 
out praying  for  them,  we  should  have  found 
the  answer  in  a  new  sense  of  fellowship  be- 
tween all  classes,  in  the  feeling  that  every 
man,  in  every  position,  has  an  office  and 
ministry  which  it  is  his  privilege  to  exercise 
for  those  over  whom  he  is  set ;  in  a  clearer 
apprehension  of  the  relationship  between 
the  master  of  a  household  and  his  domestics, 
the  landlord  and  his  tenants,  the  farmer  and 
his  laborers,  the  manufacturer  and  those 
who  work  at  the  loom  or  the  mill,  the  trades- 
man and  those  who  serve  in  his  shop ;  be- 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  87 

tween  these  and  then  between  all  of  them 
and  the  outlying  mass,  wliich  seems  to  be 
beyond  the  bounds  of  all  ordinary  civil 
relationships,  but  which,  as  it  has  the  great 
mark  of  human  relationship,  may  be  adopted 
into  these,  or  be  fitted  to  take  a  part  in  the 
establishment  of  new  societies  elsewhere. 

If  we  meet  continually  in  the  street  creat- 
ures of  our  own  flesh  and  blood,  who  have  a 
look  of  hunger  and  misery,  without  being 
able  to  determine  whether  it  is  a  greater  sin 
to  withhold  that  which  may  save  them  from 
death,  or  to  give  what  may  lead  to  the  worst 
kind  of  death  ;  if  a  thousand  social  problems, 
which  we  once  supposed  were  of  easy  solu- 
tion, present  themselves  in  new  and  embar- 
rassing aspects,  tempting  us  to  pass  them 
by  altogether  and  then  forcing  upon  us  the 
reflection  that  they  must  settle  themselves 
in  some  way,  whether  we  forget  them  or  not ; 
if  we  hear  masses  of  creatures  spoken  of  as 
if  they  were  the  insects  we  look  at  in  a  mi- 
croscope, and  then  are  suddenly  reminded 
by  some  startling  phenomenon  that  each  one 
of  them  has  a  living  soul ;  then,  before  we 
become  mad,  or  escape  into  an  apathy  that 
is  worse  than  madness,  let  us  ask  ourselves 
whether  we  have   yet   prayed   this  child's 


88  GIVE   US   THIS  DAT  [Serm. 

prayer  as  we  would  have  a  child  pray  it,  in 
simplicity  and  truth.  And  if  we  are  con- 
scious that  we  have  not,  let  us  confess  the  sin, 
and  see  whether  He  to  whom  we  confess  it 
does  not  shed  some  light  into  our  minds 
which  makes  our  path  clearer,  —  a  light 
which  we  may  beheve  He  will  vouchsafe  to 
our  brethren  in  this  land,  and  in  all  lands, 
for  their  practical  guidance,  when  their  large 
theories  are  found  to  be  reeds,  upon  which, 
if  a  man  leans,  they  will  go  into  his  hand 
and  pierce  it. 

III.  But  the  prayer  is  only  for  this  day^ 
Hence  it  is  often  thought  that  the  spirit  of 
the  Gospel  is  adverse  to  foresight.  How  can 
the  command,  "  Take  no  thought  for  the 
morrow,"  be  reconciled  with  the  kind  of 
anticipation  and  preparation  which  seem  to 
distinguish  the  civilized  man  from  the  hunter 
of  the  woods  ?  The  answer  lies  in  our  own 
experience.  Have  we  found  that  anxiety 
about  possible  consequences  increased  the 
clearness  of  our  judgment,  made  us  wiser 
and  braver  in  meeting  the  present,  and  arm- 
ing ourselves  for  the  future  ?  Is  it  this  kind 
of  tem.per  which  enables  a  man  to  plough 
the  ground,  to  sow  the  seed  in  the  appointed 
month,  to  wait   patiently  for  the  harvest  ? 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  89 

Is  it  the  temper  which  would  have  enabled 
any  sailor,  any  merchant,  to  venture  himself 
or  his  goods  upon  the  deep  ?   We  know  per- 
fectly well  that  the  most  opposite  habit  of 
mind  to  this,  a  simple  and  hearty  rehance 
upon  a   power  whom  the   ground,  and  the 
seasons,  and  the  winds,  and  the  waves  obey, 
could  alone  have  made  such  acts  and  enter- 
prises possible.     Clearness  of  vision,  provi- 
dence, discovery,   are   the   rewards   of   the 
calm  and  patient  spirit.     The  cases  are  rare 
indeed  where  they  have  been  given  to  any 
other:     Out   of   that  care  for   the  morrow 
which  our  Lord  denounces,  spring  the  fever 
of  speculation,  the  hasting  to  be  rich,  end- 
less scheming,  continual  reactions  of  fantas- 
tic hope,  and  deep  depression  in  individuals, 
of  mad  prosperity  and  intense  suffering  in 
nations.     If  we  had   prayed  for  this  day's 
bread,  and  left  the  next  to  itself,  if  we  had 
not  huddled  our  days  together,  not  allotting 
to  each  its  appointed  task,  but  ever  defer- 
ring that  to  the  future,  and  drawing  upon 
the  future  for  its  o^vn  troubles  which  must 
be  met  when  they  come  whether  we  have  an- 
ticipated them  or  not,  we  should  have  found 
a  simplicit}^  and  honesty  in  our  lives,  a  ca- 
pacity for  work,  an  enjoyment  in  it,  to  which 


90  GIVE  US  THIS  DAY  [Serm. 

we  are  now  for  the  most  part  strangers. 
Here,  I  believe,  we  shall  all  find  abundant 
matter  for  confession,  if  we  look  faithfully 
into  our  lives.  This  part  of  the  prayer  too 
has  been  unfaithfully  repeated ;  we  have 
been  Avearying  ourselves  in  thoughts  of  what 
would  be,  because  we  have  no  confidence  in 
Him  who  is. 

IV.  But  it  is  our  daily  bread  we  ask  for, 

Tov  apTOV  yjiiuiv  tov  linovcrLov.      This  WOrd  Ittlov- 

criov  gave  rise  to  one  of  the  controversies 
between  Abelard  and  Bernard  in  the  12th 
century.  The  former  following  a  hint  of 
Jerome,  adopted  the  translation  partem 
supersuhstantialem,  and  taught  Heloise  and 
the  nuns  in  her  convent  to  use  it  in  repeat- 
ing the  prayer.  It  appears  that  the  prac- 
tice was  not  a  new  one  there  ;  at  all  events, 
Bernard  had  no  right  to  accuse  his  oppo- 
nent of  wilfully  perverting  Scripture,  when 
he  was  following  the  guidance  of  the  most 
approved  Latin  Father.  We  shall  all  prob- 
ably agree  that  he  was  right  in  objecting  to 
a  phrase  which,  even  if  it  had  more  philo- 
logical plausibility  than  really  belongs  to 
it,i  would  be  entirely  out  of  harmony  with 
the  tone  and  spirit  of  the  prayer.     It  is  less 

1  It  confounds  inl  with  vn-ep. 


v.]  OUR  DAILY  BREAD.  91 

easy  to  say  what  exact  word  we  should 
adopt ;  we  have  no  analogy  to  help  us,  for 
the  word  does  not  exist  in  any  classical  au- 
thor. The  balance  of  evidence  seems  de- 
cidedly in  favor  of  those  who  derive  the 
word  as  Jerome  did,  but  take  it  to  mean 
"  bread  for  subsistence."  Our  translators 
followed  a  different  course,  but  they  arrived 
nearly  at  the  same  result.  Bread  for  sub- 
sistence defines  accurately  what  we  intend 
by  daily  bread,  when  we  intend  anything. 
We  ask  for  bread  to  sustain  us,  bread  that 
shall  be  enough  for  our  needs.  What  is 
enough  we  are  happily  not  called  to  fix  ; 
the  act  of  prayer  throws  the  decision  of 
that  point  upon  a  wiser  judge.  No  one, 
therefore,  could  infer  from  the  use  of  this 
expression  that  a  rigid  sumptuary  law  is 
involved  in  the  petition  ;  that  one  has,  of 
course,  the  same  needs  as  another.  The 
Bible  admits  the  distinction  of  rich  and 
poor ;  in  commanding  hospitality,  it  assumes 
that  there  are  some  who  have  the  means  of 
exercising  it,  and  others  towards  whom  it 
may  be  exercised.  But  the  words  are  not 
the  less  cutting  because  they  do  not  reduce 
all  expenditure  to  a  level.  They  may  di- 
late to  take  in  a  great  variety  of  cases,  but 


92  GIVE  us   THIS  DAT  [Serm. 

they  can  never  lose  their  proper  original 
signification.  Bread  for  subsistence  will 
not,  under  any  circumstances,  be  bread  for 
mere  display,  for  waste,  for  rivalry.  The 
prayer  asserts  a  broad,  palpable,  everlasting 
distinction  between  the  different  reasons  for 
seeking  wealth,  the  different  ways  of  using 
it ;  though  it  leaves  every  man's  conscience 
to  determine  in  the  sight  of  God  which  rea- 
sons govern  his  acts,  which  ways  he  is  tak- 
ing. Honestly  offered  up,  therefore,  it 
will,  I  conceive,  make  us  very  uneasy  in 
that  kind  of  ostentation  which  men  in  each 
class  of  society  are  apt  to  affect  for  the  pur- 
pose of  not  being  distanced  by  those  of  the 
same  grade,  and  that  they  may  assert  their 
right  to  a  higher.  Moralists,  satirists,  di- 
vines, have  long  been  using  their  different 
weapons  against  this  folly  apparently  with 
little  success.  It  is  now  coming  before  us 
in  a  new  form.  Competition  is  denounced 
as  a  monstrous  evil,  which  a  new  organiza- 
tion of  society  is  needed  to  remedy.  How 
numerous  and  weighty  are  the  facts  which 
the  advocates  of  this  theory  are  able  to  al- 
lege !  how  much  excuse  does  there  seem  for 
the  root  and  branch  schemes  which  they 
suggest !    Yes,  jf  they  were  root  and  branch 


v.]  OUR   DAILY  BREAD.  93 

schemes ;  if  they  did  find  out  the  source  of 
this  evil,    if   a  reconstruction   of   civil   life 
could  prevent  its   renewal.     But  we   trust 
neither   in   satirists,    moralists,    divines,  or 
communists.     Another   hand  than    ours   is 
needed   to  deal  with  a   disease  which   has 
penetrated  so  deeply,  which  has  so  nearly 
reached  our  vitals.     What  we  can  do  is  to 
tell   men    that  this  hand  is  stretched    out, 
that  any  secret  corruption  which  has  been 
cherished  in  the  heart  of  individuals,  or  in 
the  heart  of  society,  will  be  brought   into 
the   clear   light ;   that   national   judgments 
will  purge  away  those  of  which  the  removal 
is  not  first  sought  by  national  repentance. 
What  we  can  do  is  to  say,  He  who  sends 
these  judgments  is  willing  to  give  that  re- 
pentance.    He  invites  us  now  at  this  time 
to  acknowledge  the  sins  that  we  know,  to 
ask  Him  to  search  our  hearts,  and  discover 
those  which  we  know  not.     He  bids  us  be- 
lieve that  the  most  inveterate  cancer  as  in 
ourselves,  so  in  the  body  politic,  may  be 
taken  from  us  by  his  knife,  if  we  will  sub- 
mit to  it.     He  exhorts  us  not  to  wait  till 
the  dark  and  evil  day  actually  comes  upon 
us,  till  the   house   is   left   desolate   of   his 
presence,   and    stript   of    every   good    gift 


94  GIVE   us   THIS  DAY,   ETC     [Serm.  Y. 

which  we  have  received  through  it.  He 
calls  upon  us  this  day  to  turn  to  Him  with 
thanksgivuigs,  as  to  the  great  Giver  of  all 
blessings,  with  confessions  as  to  the  Father 
whom  we  have  grieved  by  disbelieving  in 
his  love,  and  not  showing  it  forth  to  our 
brethren  ;  with  prayer  that  He  will  give  us 
and  them  all  we  need,  and  most  of  all,  the 
heart  to  receive  it  from  Him  as  his  stew- 
ards, for  the  good  of  those  who  are  dear  in 
his  sififht. 


SERMON  VL 

SECOND  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 


Forgive  us  our  Debts,  as  we  forgive  our  Debtors. 
—  Matthew  vi.  12. 

\^E  sliould  be  sorry,  I  tliink,  to  lose  the 
'  *  Avord  "  trespasses,"  which  we  use  in 
our  ordinary  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  which  is  translated,  no  doubt,  from  the 
word  a/xapria?  in  St.  Lukc.  Yet  St.  Mat- 
thew's expression  presents  a  more  distinct 
image  to  the  mind  ;  it  interprets  itself  more 
easily.  Therefore  I  have  chosen  it  this 
afternoon,  not  wishing  you  to  consider  it 
alone,  but  belie\4ng  that  it  may  help  us 
to  a  clearer  apprehension  of  a  word  which 
for  many,  at  least,  has  lost  its  brightness 
through  continual  attrition.  The  idea  which 
the  petition  embodies,  results,  I  suspect, 
from  the  union  of  that  wliich  is  peculiar  in 
each  of  these  forms.  We  find  it  so  gener- 
ally, when  Ave  take  the   pains  to  examine 


96  FORGIVE   US   OUR  DEBTS,         [Serm. 

different  expressions  evidently  answering  to 
each  other,  or  different  reports  of  the  same 
transaction  in  the  Gospels.  From  the  com- 
parison of  them  there  proceeds  a  fuller  and 
more  profomid  meaning  than  we  could  have 
obtained  from  either  separately.  What  is 
called  the  study  of  parallel  passages,  may  in 
this  way  be  really  profitable ;  it  is  often 
made  into  a  very  childish  exercise,  —  one 
which  involves  no  reflection ;  sacred  words 
being  turned  into  an  irreverent  game ;  all 
sense  of  their  unity  and  relation  being  lost 
in  the  eagerness  to  hunt  out  the  precise 
places  in  which  they  occur,  or  their  most 
superficial  and  insignificant  resemblances. 

That  there  is  something  in  the  word 
"  debts,"  which  we  are  bound  to  keep  in 
mind  when  we  consider  this  prayer,  is  evi- 
dent from  the  use  of  the  cognate  verb  by 
St.  Luke,  in  the  other  clause  of  the  sen- 
tence. "  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  for  we 
also  forgive  every  one  that  is  indebted  to 
us."  It  is  evident  also  from  the  word  a<^cs, 
"  send  away,"  or  "  remit,"  which  is  com- 
mon to  both  Evangelists.  Every  one  feels 
the  appropriateness  of  such  an  expression  to 
a  creditor's  release.  We  have  no  need  to 
go  beyond  the  very  simplest  notion  of  such 


VI.]       AS    WE  FORGIVE   OUR  DEBTORS.  97 

a  release  ;  we  are  not  bound  to  think  of 
deliverance  from  a  prison,  or  from  any  in- 
fliction consequent  upon  the  failure  in  the 
fulfillment  of  an  obligation.  Discharge  from 
the  debt  itself  is  that  which  the  verb  sug- 
gests. Perhaps  we  may  find  that  this  sense 
gains,  instead  of  losing  strength,  when  we 
apply  it  to  trespasses,  —  to  sins.  Still  we 
should  first  fix  our  minds  upon  that  which 
stands  in  the  most  obvious  connection  ^vith 
it. 

I.  Our  Lord  tlien  bids  us  pray.  Remit, 
or  send  away,  or  discharge,  these  debts  or 
obligations  of  ours.  Whatever  they  are, 
He  bids  us  ask  Him  for  this  ;  this  and  noth- 
ing less.  He  who  tells  us  to  pray.  Our 
Father,  says  also.  Ask  for  this  full  remis- 
sion. He  must  mean  that  it  is  such  a 
request  as  a  child  should  make  of  a  father, 
and  a  father  could  grant  to  his  child.  He 
who  teaches  us  to  say,  "  Hallowed  be  thy 
Name,"  bids  us  ask  for  this  remission.  He 
must  mean  that  God's  Name  is  hallowed  in 
our  making  the  petition,  and  m  his  hearing 
it.  He  who  taught  us  to  say,  "  Thy  King- 
dom come,"  bids  us  say,  Grant  us  this  re- 
mission. He  must  mean  that  it  is  consistent 
with  his  Royalty,  and  part  of  it,  and  a  proof 


98  FORGIVE   US   OUR  DEBTS,         [Serm. 

of  it,  that  we  should  desire  and  receive  this 
release.  He  who  desired  us  to  pray,  "  Thy 
Will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven," 
tells  us  also  to  ask  for  this  sending  away  of 
debts.  He  must  mean  that  this  is  the  Will 
which  is  obeyed  in  heaven,  and  that  so,  we 
are  obeying  it  on  earth.  He  who  taught  us 
to  look  up  to  God  as  a  Giver,  not  as  an 
Exactor,  and  to  pray  for  the  bread  which  is 
needful  for  us,  further  commands  us  to  ask 
for  this  freedom.  He  must  mean  that  rain 
and  fruitful  seasons  are  not  more  a  sign  to 
men  of  what  He  is,  than  remission  ;  that 
one  is  as  much  an  utterance  of  his  disposition 
and  purpose  as  the  other  ;  that  one  is  at 
least  as  much  needed  by  his  creatures  as  the 
other.  He  who  came  down  to  declare  the 
Name,  the  Kingdom,  the  Will  of  God,  and 
to  bring  all  good  gifts  to  men,  must  have 
wished  us  to  understand  Him  thus  ;  or  He 
could  not  have  trained  us  to  the  use  of  a 
word  so  precise  and  yet  so  unhmited. 

II.  The  objects  of  this  prayer  must  be 
those  who  were  united  with  us  when  we 
said,  "  Our  Father,"  and,  "  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread."  If  there  were  any 
for  whom  we  did  not  pray  when  we  said 
those  words,  they  will  be   excluded  from 


VI.]       AS   WE  FORGIVE  OUR  DEBTORS.  99 

these.  If  there  are  any  human  beings 
whose  nature  we  suppose  Christ  did  not 
take,  any  for  whom  we  suppose  the  Father 
does  not  care,  for  those  we  do  not  ask  the 
remission  of  trespasses.  Where  such  Hmit- 
ations  begin,  where  they  must  end,  I  have 
had  occasion  to  consider  while  I  have  been 
commenting  on  the  former  clauses  of  the 
Prayer.  They  begin  in  a  feeling  that  we 
must,  for  our  own  safety,  estabhsh  cer- 
tain boundaries  beyond  which  the  divine 
compassion  cannot  go  ;  they  proceed  to  the 
invention  of  securities  and  exclusions  which 
compass  their  end  so  little  that  their  places 
must  be  presently  supplied  by  others  ;  they 
end  in  the  discovery  that  we  have  destroyed 
the  ground  under  our  own  feet,  while  we 
have  been  making  it  untenable  for  our  fel- 
low-men. I  need  not  repeat  the  evidence, 
but  I  must  repeat  the  warning.  When  the 
publican  prayed,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me 
a  sinner,"  he  claimed  for  himself  a  place 
among  the  whole  body  of  sinners  ;  he  would 
not  say  like  the  Pharisee,  I  am  not  as  other 
men  are.  If  in  literal  imitation  of  his  ex- 
ample, in  real  contempt  of  it,  any  one  of 
us  chooses  to  say.  Forgive  me  my  debts, 
rather  than.  Forgive  us  our  debts,  he  will 


100  FORGIVE    US   OUR  DEBTS,  [Serm. 

not  go  down  to  his  liouse  justified ;  lie  will 
feel  that  the  petition  has  not  been  granted. 
III.  And  yet  when  we  come  to  consider 
what  these  debts  are  which  we  crave  should 
be  put  away,  it  does  not  seem  wonderful 
that  we  should  choose  individualizing  lan- 
guage rather  than  that  which  is  more  gen- 
eral. For  each  man  says  within  liimseK, 
Are  not  these  debts  mine  in  the  strictest 
sense?  Are  they  not  obligations  which  I 
have  contracted,  and  which  I  have  violated  ? 
Upon  me  lies  a  burden  which  I  cannot  shift 
upon  any  other  human  creature,  —  the  bur- 
den of  duties  unfulfilled,  words  unspoken, 
or  spoken  violently  and  untruly;  of  holy 
relationships  neglected  ;  of  days  wasted  for- 
ever ;  of  evil  thoughts  once  cherished,  which 
are  ever  appearing  now  as  fresh  as  when 
they  were  first  admitted  into  the  heart ;  of 
talents  cast  away ;  of  affections  in  myself,  or 
in  others,  trifled  with  ;  of  light  within  turned 
to  darkness.  So  speaks  the  conscience  ;  so 
speaks  or  has  spoken  the  conscience  of  each 
man.  In  some  it  may  be  a  feeble  voice, 
soon  lost  in  the  noises  of  the  outward  world, 
or  silenced  by  violent  efforts,  or  choked  by 
the  senses,  or  bribed  by  the  fancy.  In 
others,  it  is  loud  and  stormy  to-day  ;  then 


VI.]       AS    WE  FORGIVE    OUR  DEBTORS.        101 

comes  a  reaction  of  fierce  merriment  or  a 
temporary  lull,  which  will  be  followed  again 
by  new  blasts  of  passion.  In  some  it  is  a 
low  but  perpetually  sounding  knell,  witness- 
ing of  a  death  begun  and  going  on  in  them- 
selves ;  of  the  past  accursed,  the  present 
withered,  the  future  vaguely  terrible.  But 
each  one  who  has  ever  known  what  con- 
science is,  feels  that  it  is  upon  his  own  very 
self  these  obligations  lie.  They  may  some- 
times present  themselves  to  him  in  dark  out- 
ward visions,  they  may  be  associated  insep- 
arably with  certain  places  and  persons. 
But  they  sit  like  nightmares  upon  him ; 
they  stop  his  breathing ;  they  hold  him 
chained.  How  often  would  he  persuade 
himself  that  they  are  only  phantoms  !  How 
often  would  he  task  his  understanding  to 
prove  that  he  has  himself  brought  them 
thither  by  some  strange  conjuring  !  Why 
cannot  he  cast  them  aside  as  dreams  of  the 
night  ?  Are  they  anything  more  ?  They 
come  back  with  fearful  distinctness ;  the 
very  act  of  which  conscience  testifies,  every 
circumstance,  look,  tone,  clearly  recorded  ; 
it  is  no  dream  of  the  night.  The  voice,  be 
it  from  Heaven  or  Hell,  is  a  real  one,  which 
says,  '^  It  is  done,  and  cannot  be  undone," 


102  FORGIVE  US   OUR  DEBTS,  [Serm. 

and,  "  Thou  art  the  man."  What  signifies 
it  that  years  have  passed  away.  The  act  is 
gone,  but  thou  art  still  the  same.  The  act 
is  gone  into  Eternity,  and  there  it  will  meet 
thee. 

These  are  the  debts;  are  they  to  our- 
selves ?  Often  it  seems  so.  We  have  suf- 
fered by  them  more  than  all  others  —  our 
bodies  and  souls.  But  if  they  are  to  our- 
selves, we  cannot  release  them.  The  more 
we  try,  the  more  hopelessly  the  coil  is 
twisted  round  us.  Are  they  to  our  fellows  ? 
Often  we  think  so.  We  are  bound  to  them 
by  sacred  ties  which  were  forgotten;  the 
friend  repulsed,  because  we  did  not  under- 
stand him,  or  his  opinions  seemed  dangerous, 
or  because  we  took  a  cry  of  agony  for  a 
mocking  laugh ;  the  child  petted  and  fon- 
dled into  sin,  or  driven  into  it  by  roughness 
and  what  we  call  parental  authority  ;  those 
who  looked  to  be  raised  and  purified  by  us, 
degraded  through  our  weak  and  groveling 
ways ;  those  who  would  have  entered  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  hindered,  because 
we  cared  not  that  they  should  be  wiser  and 
better  than  ourselves.  But  if  our  debts  are 
to  our  fellow-creatures,  they  cannot  dis- 
charge them.  If  we  could  hear  each  one  dis- 


VI.]       AS    WE  FORGIVE  OUR  DEBTORS.        103 

tinctly  saying  out  of  the  grave,  or  from 
Heaven,  "  I  forgive,"  though  the  words 
might  be  unspeakably  dehghtful,  we  feel 
they  would  not  penetrate  deep  enough,  they 
would  not  set  us  free  from  that  which  has 
seemed  to  become  a  part  of  our  o^vn  being. 

Are  they  debts  to  God  ?  The  first  vague 
consciousness  of  such  a  behef,  how  terrible 
it  is !  All  the  former  aspects  of  the  debt 
seem  mild  to  this  one  ;  yet  all  were  surely 
prophetical  of  this  one.  That  sense  of  per- 
manence of  Eternity  being  bound  up  with 
our  acts  and  the  results  of  them,  what  was 
this  but  a  '^^^tness  that  they  had  a  relation 
to  God  Himself  ?  He  surely  was  speaking 
that  voice  which  we  thought  came  from  our- 
selves, and  which  was  echoed  by  everything 
and  every  person  in  the  world  around.  Yes, 
Debts  are  Trespasses :  we  have  not  only 
forfeited  an  obligation,  but  committed  a  sin ; 
we  have  broken  a  law  which  was  not  formed 
on  earth,  and  cannot  be  repealed  on  earth. 

But  at  this  point  of  despair  hope  begins. 
It  is  sin  ;  sin  against  God.  These  very  feel- 
ings we  are  groaning  under  are  sinful ;  this 
sense  of  e\^l  is  evil.  For  has  it  not  brought 
death  into  the  soul  ?  Is  not  this  torpor,  this 
incapacity  for  action,  feeling,  loving,  Death? 


104  FORGIVE   US   OUR  DEBTS,  [Sekm. 

Assuredly  it  is.  And  He  willeth  not  the 
death  of  a  sinner.  He  cannot  be  pleased 
that  I  should  continue  in  a  state  of  sin.  He 
is  not  pleased  with  it.  Then  come  dim  rec- 
ollections of  words  heard  in  the  nursery,  of 
doctrines  which  had  been  reduced  mto  mere 
phrases  and  stored  away  in  the  memory  as 
lumber,  or  more  courageously  cast  aside  as 
absurd  contradictions  of  human  experience 
and  ordinary  logic;  doctrines  which  had 
perhaps  been  associated  with  the  remem- 
brance of  some  hard,  comfortless  teacher,  who 
first  imparted  them  to  us  in  traditional 
shapes  and  moulds,  or  who  mixed  them  with 
views  of  the  divine  character  from  which  the 
conscience  and  reason  revolted;  doctrines, 
however,  which  do  not  sound  now  as  if  they 
were  unsuited  to  our  necessities  or  unworthy 
of  One  who  cared  for  his  creatures  :  the 
doctrine  of  reconciliation,  of  a  father  who  so 
loved  the  world  as  to  give  his  only-begotten 
Son  for  it ;  of  a  Son  who  came  down  from 
heaven  not  to  do  his  own  Will,  but  the  Will 
of  Him  who  sent  him ;  who  did  that  will  by 
laying  down  his  life  for  the  sheep  ;  who  was 
manifested  to  take  away  sin,  and  in  whom 
was  no  sin ;  by  faith  in  whom  a  man  may 
rise  out  of  himself,  cast  away  the  slough 


VI.]        AS    WE  FORGIVE   OUR  DEBTORS.       105 

of  death,  and  become  a  new  and  righteous 
creature.  Such  words,  however  imperfectly 
understood,  yet  carry  in  them  an  amazing 
power  for  one  who  has  felt  his  debts  and 
known  them  to  be  sins.  But  they  acquire  a 
newer  and  a  fuller  meaning  for  him  when  he 
finds  that  what  seemed  to  him  an  entirely 
isolated  experience  is  that  of  numbers  of  his 
fellow-men  ;  when  he  hears  of  publicans  and 
harlots  who,  through  the  same  storm,  have 
sought  and  found  the  same  haven.  Then  he 
learns  to  say,  and  not  to  say  in  vain,  "  For- 
give us  our  Trespasses." 

IV.  There  perhaps  he  stops;  the  words 
which  follow  are  either  forgotten  or  they 
give  him  no  present  anxiety.  In  the  spring- 
tide of  wonder  and  enjoyment,  at  the  discov- 
ery that  there  is  a  communication  between 
earth  and  heaven,  and  that  the  angels  of 
heaven  and  the  God  of  heaven  rejoice  over 
every  sinner  that  repenteth,  it  does  not  strike 
him  that  there  is  the  least  difficulty  in  remit- 
ting to  other  men  any  debts  they  may  have 
incurred  to  him.  But  the  first  fervor  of  these 
convictions  dies  away.  He  seeks  to  keep 
them  alive  by  association  with  those  who  are 
or  have  been  sharers  in  them.  By  mutual 
encouragement,  that  which  is  feeble  and  flag- 


106  FORGIVE   US   OUR  DEBTS,         [Serm. 

ging  in  each  may  be  invigorated.  Every 
one  has  realized  something  which  another 
might  be  better  for  knowing ;  the  barter  and 
interchange  of  thought  will  make  all  richer. 
It  should  be  so  certainly;  but  those  who 
make  the  experiment  often  suspect  that  the 
reverse  is  true.  While  they  are  discoursing 
of  that  which  is  passing  within,  it  seems  to 
be  within  no  longer.  In  the  commerce  of 
feehngs,  notes  and  bills  which  there  is  noth- 
ing to  meet  soon  circulate  rapidly  from  hand 
to  hand.  And  then  the  latter  words  of  the 
prayer  suddenly  assume  a  disagreeable  sig- 
nificance. "  Forgive  as  we  forgive  ;  "  surely 
here  is  a  condition  appended  to  that  which 
we  thought  absolutely  free  !  Does  it  mean 
that  our  forgiveness  is  the  cause  of  God's 
forgiveness  —  that  He  expects  so  much  of  us 
before  He  dispenses  to  us  out  of  his  infinite 
treasures  ?  Or  does  it  mean  that  our  for- 
giveness is  the  measure  of  his  ;  that  the  acts 
of  us  fallible  creatures  determine  the  kind 
and  degree  of  the  Divine  Mercy  ?  Surely 
if  this  be  so,  the  Gospel  cannot  be  large  and 
infinite.  Forgiving  is  not  /or^Agiving,  as 
we  have  been  used  to  think ;  a  narrow  and 
clumsy  derivation  must  take  the  place  of  this  j 
it  must  import  the  giving /or  an  equivalent. 


VI.]        AS    WE  FORGIVE   OUR  DEBTORS.       107 

Accordingly  a  great  part  of  men,  even  of 
religious  men,  are  content  to  sit  down  with- 
out determining  what  the  words  which  they 
repeat  so  often  actually  signify.  They  can- 
not mean  that,  therefore  it  is  better  to  sup- 
pose that  they  have  no  distinct  meaning  at 
all.  "  Of  course,"  thinks  the  Christian  who 
is  trying  hard  to  be  at  peace  with  himself, 
"  in  a  sense,  I  do  forgive  every  one  who  is 
indebted  to  me.  I  should  not  be  deserving 
of  the  goodness  I  receive  if  I  did  not ;  and 
if  I  come  short,  I  ask  to  be  forgiven ;  is  not 
that  the  very  use  of  prayer  ?  " 

There  are,  I  am  sure,  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  who  repeat  this  petition  in 
spirit  and  truth,  and  upon  whom  it  brings 
down  blessings  unspeakable,  though  they 
could  not  express  to  others  what  tht?y  mean 
by  this  clause,  and  though  their  own  minds 
are  probably  far  from  clear  about  it. 
Prayer  seeks  that  which  lies  below  all 
words  ;  it  aims  at  the  light  whereof  that 
which  shines  in  our  understandmgs  is  but 
the  dim  reflection.  From  those  who  pray 
as  children  one  desires  only  to  learn  ;  their 
lives  are  better  and  more  beautiful  com- 
mentaries upon  their  prayers  than  any  the 
schools  can  furnish.     But  it   is  altogether 


108  FORGIVE   US   OUR  DEBTS,         [Serm. 

different   with   those   who   try   to    explain 
away  words   upon  which  our   Lord  dwells 
with   special   carefulness ;    those   words   to 
which  He  drew  his  disciples'  attention,  as 
if  they  contained  the  spirit  and  essence  of 
the  whole  form.     "If  ye  forgive  not  men 
their  trespasses,  neither  will  your  Heavenly 
Father  forgive  you  your  trespasses  ;  "  this 
is  his  own  express  language,  which  He  il- 
lustrates again  and  again  in  his  other  dis- 
courses, always  strengthening  not  diminish- 
mg  its  awfulness  ;  making  in  one  case  the 
significant  addition,  "if  je  from  your  hearts 
forgive  not  every  one  his  brother  their  tres- 
passes."   It  will  not  do  surely  to  make  light 
of  such  solemn  oracles,  or  reduce  them  into 
nullities,  because  they  do  not  accord  with  a 
notion  we  have  formed  about  the  freeness 
of  Christ's  Gospel.     But  as  little  ought  we 
to  part  with  our  belief  in  that  freeness,  or 
with  any  deep  conviction  which  has   been 
given  us,  because  something  which  we  have 
not  yet  understood  seems  to  contradict  it. 
We  need,  for  our  practical  life,  that  the 
apparently  inconsistent  principles  should  be 
reconciled ;  and  if  we  are  honest  with  our- 
selves we  shall  not  be  long  in  discovering 
the  reconciliation. 


VI.]       AS    WE  FORGIVE    OUR  DEBTORS.        109 

How  is  it  that  persons  who  have  had 
that  lively  sense  of  mercy  and  forgiveness  to 
which  I  referred  are  not  able  to  retain  it  ? 
They  know  in  their  consciences  that  they  do 
not ;  they  continually  confess  it ;  they  are 
sure  that  they  ought  to  retain  it,  but  it  will 
not  stay.  The  feeling  of  a  debt  grows  up  in 
the  mind  again,  after  they  supposed  it  was* 
canceled  ;  they  refer  to  the  evidence  upon 
which  they  rested  their  confidence  ;  it  is  as 
satisfactory  as  ever  ;  they  assure  themselves 
that  all  must  be  right,  and  yet  their  hearts 
say  there  is  much  wrong.  Then  they  resort 
to  theological  distinctions  and  formulas  ;  this 
sense  of  debt  and  sin  is  very  tormenting,  no 
doubt,  but  it  is  inevitable  ;  it  must  stay  with 
us  while  we  are  in  this  bad  world.  Perhaps 
so  ;  but  must  it  be  ever  multiplying,  nay 
producing  fresh  sin  ?  Must  the  conscious- 
ness of  it  make  me  sour  to  others  ;  often 
make  me  false  in  dealing  with  myself? 
Will  theological  terms  and  distinctions,  or 
the  recollection  of  by-gone  experiences,  or  a 
general  apprehension  that  God  is  at  peace 
with  us,  make  ill-temper  gracious  or  self- 
deception  truth  ?  Must  there  not  be  some 
other  more  excellent  way  than  this  of 
bringing  the   facts  of   our   own   lives   into 


no  FORGIVE   US    OUR  DEBTS,  [Serm. 

coincidence  with  the  truths  of  the  Bible? 
One  would  think  that  the  most  obvious,  the 
most  excellent  way  was  to  study  our  Lord's 
own  interpretation  of  the  case.  He  says 
that  when  a  servant  who  had  been  par- 
doned the  debt  of  ten  thousand  talents  went 
out  of  his  lord's  presence,  he  found  a  fel- 
low-servant who  owed  him  a  hundred  pence, 
and  that  he  took  him  by  the  throat,  saying, 
Pay  me  that  thou  owest,  and  would  not  lis- 
ten to  his  cry,  "  Have  patience  with  me." 
This,  he  says,  was  the  cause  that  his  own 
debt  came  back  to  him  heavier  and  more 
hopeless  than  ever.  Is  there  not  a  clear 
light  thrown  on  the  dark  passages  of  our 
lives  by  this  parable  ?  Only  think  how  we 
are  wont  to  speak  of  the  obligations  which 
other  men  are  mider  to  us,  of  the  debts 
they  have  incurred  to  us,  of  the  demands 
which  we  have  a  right  to  make  upon  them. 
Only  think  how  exactly  our  Lord's  lan- 
guage represents  our  feelings,  how  it  is  ut- 
tered in  all  our  daily  actions.  "  Pay  me 
that  thou  owest,  servant,  child,  poor  de- 
pendent, friend,  wife,  brother  ;  "  is  not  that 
the  first  natural  thought  of  our  hearts  ?  Do 
we  not  encourage  it,  justify  it  to  ourselves 
and  others  ?  have  we  not  a  host  of  religious 


VI.]        AS    WE  FORGIVE   OUR  DEBTORS.       Ill 

excuses  for  tolerating  it  till  it  becomes  the 
habit  of  our  souls  ?  There  is  abundance 
of  good-natured  charity  afloat  in  the  world, 
charity  for  all  sorts  of  people,  for  all  forms 
of  distress.  But  this  is  the  ornamental  part 
of  our  existence,  the  capital  or  fret-work  of 
the  building.  The  substantial  part,  the  pil- 
lars of  it,  we  seem  to  think  are  our  rights  ; 
rights  to  position,  property,  rank,  the  hom- 
age of  others,  their  gratitude.  If  these  are 
withheld  —  the  hundred  pence  which  each 
man  has  a  claim  upon  from  his  fellow  — 
with  what  indignation  do  we  repulse  the 
claims  which  we  had  acknowledged  that 
mercy  and  charity  have  upon  us  I 

Now,  brethren,  if  this  be  so,  is  it  very 
wonderful  that  the  sense  of  divine  forgive- 
ness, the  apprehension  of  perfect  unclouded 
mercy,  should  not  be  very  clear  and  strong 
in  our  minds  ? 

It  is  surely  the  most  fantastic  of  all 
dreams,  that  a  man  can  cut  his  being  into 
two  portions,  call  one  of  them  religious  and 
the  other  mundane,  and  administer  them  on 
directly  opposite  principles.  One  or  other 
must  come  to  nought.  If  we  beheve  that 
the  world  is  governed  by  a  forgiving  Being, 
his  forgiveness  must  be  recognized  as  the 


112  FORGIVE  US   OUR  DEBTS,  [Serm. 

Law  of  the  Universe,  the  Law  of  our  be- 
ing. If  we  believe  that  Individual  Right  is 
the  great  principle  we  are  to  assert  in  all 
common  transactions,  that  principle  will  be 
carried  to  the  highest  ground  of  all,  and  so 
far  as  we  acknowledge  a  Divine  Being  at 
all,  we  shall  regard  Him  as  one  like  our- 
selves ;  we  shall  feel  that  his  main  desire  is 
to  assert  his  rights  over  us.  I  say,  so  far 
as  we  acknowledge  a  Divine  Being  at  all ; 
for  I  cannot  help  perceiving  that  Atheism 
is  the  natural,  almost  the  necessary,  refuge 
from  such  a  notion  of  the  Lord  of  all  as 
this.  The  naked  contemplation  of  one  who 
has  no  will  but  self-will  is  so  intolerable, 
that  the  conscience  which  remains  in  human 
beings,  in  spite  of  all  their  theories,  shrinks 
back  in  horror  from  the  belief  that  such  an 
one  can  be  he  to  whom  the  name  of  God, 
the  good,  was  once  ascribed.  Yet  what 
avails  the  denial?  If  self-will  do  govern 
the  world,  if  we  confess  it  to  be  our  Lord, 
we  may  or  may  not  attribute  to  it  personal- 
ity ;  but  it  does,  all  the  same,  hold  us  in  its 
iron  bonds ;  we  are  in  prison,  the  evil  spirit 
is  our  jailer,  and  we  cannot  come  out  till  we 
have  paid  the  uttermost  farthing. 

Brethren,  it  is  this  which  makes  the  con- 


VI.]       AS    WE  FORGIVE  OUR  DEBTORS.        113 

sideration  of  our  times  so  profoundly  awful. 
We  cannot  avoid  the  conviction  that  the 
maxims  upon  which  we  have  been  acting 
will  come  forth  into  full  display  ;  that  they 
will  be  thrown  back  upon  ourselves;  that 
the  rights  we  have  asserted  against  our  fel- 
low-men wiU  be  asserted  by  them  against 
us.  We  have  had  and  we  have  warnings 
enough  of  this  catastrophe  ;  let  us  hope  that 
they  have  not  been  wholly  lost  i(^on  us. 
Even  yet  the  dark  image  of  mere  selfish 
power,  in  one  or  in  a  multitude,  is  not  re- 
vealed ;  it  struggles  strangely,  wonderfully 
in  the  minds  of  those  wlio  seem  most  ready 
to  fall  do^vn  and  worship  it  with  the  belief 
of  a  Love  which  must  rule  at  last,  which 
we  are  permitted  to  obey  now.  O  !  if  we 
might  interpret  to  any  that  strange  conflict 
of  two  opposing  principles  —  two  Kingdoms 
—  in  the  womb  of  humanity  !  O  !  that 
some  voice  might  be  heard  declaring  clearly 
and  mightily,  "  The  elder  shall  serve  the 
younger.  He  who  won  the  battle  in  the 
wilderness,  proved  that  his  Father  and  not 
Satan,  love  and  not  self,  is  the  King  of 
kings,  and  Lord  of  lords." 

But  if  that  proclamation  is  to  be  heard  on 
the  housetops,  it  must  first  be  spoken  in  the 


114  FORGIVE   US   OUR  DEBTS,         [Serm. 

ear  in  closets.  It  must  come  forth  as  the  in- 
terpretation and  fulfillment  of  this  prayer, 
"  Forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
them  who  trespass  against  us."  We  must 
thoroughly  believe  and  understand  that  what 
seems  to  be  a  limiting  condition  of  the  re- 
quest, is  really  an  enlargement  of  its  scope 
and  power.  We  ask  to  be  forgiven,  and  the 
revelation  of  God's  mercy  in  Christ,  of  the 
love  which  is  in  Himself,  of  the  perfect  atone- 
ment made  once  for  all,  is  an  answer.  It 
seems  to  be  transitory ;  we  try  to  fall  back 
upon  it,  and  feel  that  that  which  we  trusted 
in  yesterday  is  not  so  strong  to-day.  Why  ? 
Because  we  asked  too  little,  because  we  did 
not  enter  into  the  fullness  of  the  word, 
"Remit,"  "Send  away."  If  we  had,  we 
should  have  prayed  not  for  a  momentary 
sense  of  Forgiveness,  but  for  the  spirit  of 
Forgiveness ;  not  merely  that  we  may  know 
what  God  is  and  is  to  us,  but  what  He  can 
accomphsh  in  us ;  that  we  may  understand 
in  Him  and  show  forth  in  ourselves  that 
mercy  which  is  no  tolerance  of  vn-ong,  but  the 
tormentor  of  it ;  which  does  not  reject  stern 
disciphne,  but  makes  it  an  instrument ;  which 
is  a  fire  to  consume  the  evil  of  all  in  whom 
it  dwells,  of  all  to  whom  it  reaches.    Forgive- 


VI.]       AS    WE  FORGIVE   OUR  DEBTORS.        115 

ness  is  not  forgiveness  when  it  is  turned  to 
our  ease  and  comfort.  It  is  in  its  nature 
expansive,  diffusive ;  it  cannot  be  cooped  up 
in  the  heart  of  any  creature ;  it  must  go  forth 
into  the  open  air,  or  it  dies.  The  debts,  we 
know  it  well,  cannot  lose  their  penal  hold 
upon  the  conscience,  their  present  and  future 
terror,  till  love  comes  in  to  fulfill  them  and 
transfer  them  ;  till  the  man  who  in  his  pride 
thought  that  all  nations  owed  him  homage, 
learns  to  say,  "  I  am  a  Debtor  to  Jew  and 
Greek,  to  Barbarian  and  Scythian,  to  bond 
and  free."  The  sense  of  sin  —  sin  itself  — 
does  not  finally  depart  from  the  conscience 
till  love,  its  great  enemy,  possesses  the 
ground  which  it  once  occupied,  till  he  who 
was  crushed  under  the  sense  of  powerless- 
ness  and  evil,  —  "  To  will  is  present  with 
me,  but  how  to,do  that  I  \vill  I  find  not,"  — 
can  exclaim,  "  He  worketh  in  us  both  to 
will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure,"  and, 
"  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ  which 
strengtheneth  me." 

Wherefore,  as  it  should  be  one  of  our  sad- 
dest subjects  of  confession  this  Lent  that  we 
have  not  hved  as  if  we  were  under  the  law 
of  Forgiveness  which  God  has  established 
for  us  and  for  all,  so  also  let  us  earnestly  be- 


116     FORGIVE  US  OUR  DEBTS,  ETC.    [Serm.  VI. 

lieve,  whensoever  we  pray,  that  we  are  pray- 
ing to  a  Forgiving  and  Merciful  Father,  who 
can  yet  do  for  us  more  than  we  ask  or  think  ; 
even  inspiring  us  with  his  own  love,  and 
enabling  us  to  walk  in  love  and  to  forgive 
all  who  are  indebted  to  us,  as  He  for  Christ's 
sake  hath  forgiven  us. 


I 


SERMON  VII. 

THIRD  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 


And  lead  us  not  into  Temptation. 

Matthew  vi.  13. 

SAID  that  the  words  of  our  Lord,  "-  It  is 
written,  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth 
out  of  the  mouth  of  God,"  were  a  ground 
for  the  petition,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread."  Lent,  above  all  seasons,  might 
teach  us  the  sense  and  power  of  it.  "  For- 
give us  our  debts,  as  we  forgive  our  debt- 
ors," had  surely  as  close  a  connection  with 
these  forty  days.  To  be  deUvered  from  a 
heavy  burden,  this  is  the  blessing  of  confes- 
sion ;  a  blessing  which  (as  the  prophets  so 
often  told  the  Jews)  we  cannot  realize  by 
any  prayer  or  fast  unless  we  seek  to  set 
others  free  from  their  burdens.  The  sub- 
ject of  Temptation  might  seem,  even  more 
than  either  of  these,  to  embrace  the  whole 


118    LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.    [Serm. 

history  and  purpose  of  this  time  in  its  rela- 
tion both  to  our  Lord  and  to  ourselves. 
But  here  a  difficulty  presents  itseK.  We 
are  told  by  the  Evangelist,  that  our  Lord 
was  "  led  up  by  the  Spirit  into  the  wilder- 
ness to  be  tempted  of  the  Devil."  We  are 
taught  to  pray,  "  Do  not  lead  or  bring  us 
into  Temptation."  Must  we  not  infer  from 
this  opposition,  that  there  is  not  that  close 
resemblance  between  his  struggles  and  ours 
which  we  have  sometimes  imagined ;  that 
our  spiritual  life  is  not  under  the  same  law 
as  his ;  that  we  are  to  deprecate  that  kind 
of  trial  to  which  He  cheerfully  submitted  ? 
There  are  some,  perhaps,  who  will  not 
feel  even  the  semblance  of  perplexity  here. 
They  will  say,  "Certainly  ;  there  are  mul- 
titudes of  perils  into  which  it  was  fitting 
for  the  Son  of  God  to  enter,  and  which  it 
would  be  madness  for  his  followers  to  en- 
counter. He  stood  in  the  might  of  his  im- 
peccable divine  nature  ;  how  can  sinners, 
nay,  even  mere  human  creatures  if  they 
were  not  sinners,  ever  forget  their  own 
readiness  to  fall  ?  "  Persons  who  use  this 
language  cannot  be  aware  what  practical 
heresies  they  are  uttering,  how  completely 
they  are   demohshing   the  whole  intent   of 


VII.]     LEAD  us  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.       119 

the  Gospel,  the  very  ground  of  man's  trust 
and  hope.  If  there  are  some  parts  of  our 
Lord's  example  that  we  are  not  to  follow, 
what  authority  is  to  tell  us  which  ?  Does 
not  the  assertion  that  He  stood  by  the 
strength  of  a  nature  in  which  we  are  not 
sharers,  exclude  us  as  much  from  commun- 
ion with  one  of  his  acts  as  with  another  ? 
We  make  void  the  doctrine  of  his  having 
taken  our  nature  ;  it  is  too  little  to  say  that 
we  lessen  the  perfectness  of  the  relation  ;  it 
becomes  imaginary. 

And  surely  no  record  of  our  Lord's  life  is 
so  entirely  outraged  by  this  hypothesis  as 
the  record  of  his  Temptation.  If  He  had 
asserted  an  independent  standing  ground. 
He  would  have  listened  to  the  words  of  the 
Tempter.  He  would,  because  He  was  the 
Son  of  God,  have  made  the  stones  bread, 
have  cast  Himself  from  the  pinnacle  of  the 
temple,  have  taken  to  Himself  the  king- 
doms of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them. 
He  refused  to  do  this.  He  would  simply 
stand  by  faith  and  dependence  on  his 
Father ;  thus  and  thus  only  would  He  as- 
sert his  filial  character.  He  did  put  Him- 
self upon  a  level  with  those  whom  He  called 
his   brethren;   He   did   claim   for   them   a 


120    LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.    [Serm. 

right  to  depend  as  He  depended,  to  trust  as 
He  trusted.  Dependence  and  trust  are  not 
inconsistent  with  the  condition  of  creatures 
who  are  human,  and  who  have  sinned.  Be- 
cause we  depend  and  trust  so  little,  we 
prove  that  we  are  still  trying  to  be  gods  — 
that  is  our  sin.  Just  so  far  as  we  depart 
from  our  Lord's  example,  we  show  our 
pride,  not  our  humihty,  our  seK-confidence, 
not  our  fear  of  ourselves. 

The  prayer  then  cannot  be  justified  on 
this  plea ;  it  cannot  bear  a  construction 
which  would  make  it  a  separation  between 
the  creatures  who  offer  it  and  Him  in 
whose  name  it  is  offered. 

Indeed,  if  we  reflect,  we  shall  perceive 
that  such  a  notion  of  it  would  be  as  much  at 
variance  with  what  we  know  of  ourselves 
as  with  what  we  believe  of  Him.  Is  it  not 
the  fact  that  we,  too,  are  led  up  into  one 
place  or  another  —  a  wilderness  or  a  city  — 
to  be  tempted  ?  Is  not  this  whole  life  of 
ours  one  continual  succession  of  tempta- 
tions? I  say,  advisedly,  of  Temptations; 
for  we  shall  gain  little,  I  think,  by  chang- 
ing that  word  for  "  trials ^"^^  as  if  every  trial 
did  not  of  necessity  involve  a  temptation. 
When  we  speak  of  undergoing  "  trials,"  we 


VII.]     LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPT  A  TION.       121 

do  not  mean  merely  "  troubles  ;  "  we  mean 
that  in  some  way  or  other  we  are  proved, 
that  we  have  an  opportunity  given  us  of 
doing  wrong  or  right.  When  we  speak  of 
Temptation,  we  look  at  the  same  fact  from 
another  side ;  we  wish  to  indicate,  not 
merely  that  we  have  the  good  and  evil  set 
before  us,  but  that  there  is  a  power  biasing 
us  to  the  evil.  But  this  is  implied  in  either 
form  of  expression.  And  therefore,  if  we 
suppose  that  God  has  brought  us  into  this 
world,  and  that  we  are  dwelling  in  it  under 
his  guidance,  and  that  all  trials  are  ordained 
by  Him,  we  must  suppose  that  He  just  as 
much  intended  us  to  be  tempted  as  He  in- 
tended his  Son  to  be  tempted.  If  we  make 
out  a  difference,  we  do  it  wilfully.'  Our 
consciences,  and  Scripture,  equally  oppose 
the  attempt. 

But  why  then  should  we  pray,  '•^  Lead  us 
not  into  Temptation  ?  "  I  answer.  Because 
this,  and  no  other,  is  the  prayer  which,  if 
we  believe  the  Scripture  account  of  our 
Lord's  forty  days  in  the  Wilderness,  He 
must  Himself  have  prayed  at  the  very  time 
when  He  was  led  up  to  be  tempted,  and 
when  He  was  going  through  the  Tempta- 
tion.    His  first  act  of  dependence  and  obe- 


1 22    LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMP TA TION.     [Serm. 

dience  was  to  go  whithersoever  He  was  led  ; 
not  to  choose  his  circumstances  for  Himself  ; 
to  be  equally  ready  for  the  desert  or  the 
market-place.  His  second  act  of  depend- 
ence was  in  the  desert  or  market-place,  in 
the  full  sight  and  foresight  of  the  Tempta- 
tions which  beset  Him  to  say,  "  Father 
bring  me  not  into  them."  And  the  prayer 
was  heard.  That  wicked  one  touched  Him 
not.  The  Tempter  had  no  power  over 
Him,  not  because  He  exalted  Himself  in  his 
own  strength,  but  because  He  would  not 
exalt  Himself  in  it ;  because  in  all  things 
He  glorified  Him  whose  will  He  came  on 
earth  to  do.  It  may  seem  a  subtle  and 
shadowy  distinction  to  make ;  and  subtle 
and  shadoAvy  must  be  all  verbal  distinctions 
which  concern  the  Will  and  its  acts.  If 
you  would  realize  the  distinctions  which 
words  try  to  embody,  you  must  leave  them 
and  turn  to  facts.  There  you  will  find  how 
substantial  are  tliese  subtleties ;  that  in 
them  lies  all  the  difference  between  the 
best  and  the  worst  man  ;  between  an  angel 
and  a  devil.  To  be  incapable  of  temptation 
is  the  privilege  of  involuntary  creatures  ;  a 
man,  or  an  angel,  dares  not  desire  it.  So 
long  as  he  feels  who  it  is  that  has  made  him 


VIL]      LEAD  US  NO  T  INTO  TEMl'  TA  TION.      1 23 

capable  of  such  danger,  who  has  given  hhii 
a  will,  he  is  safe ;  for  his  life  is  a  prayer 
that  he  may  not  be  left  to  his  own  guid- 
ance. The  moment  he  ceases  to  offer  that 
prayer  he  is  brought  into  temptation,  he 
comes  under  the  Tempter's  power  ;  because 
he  has  lost  trust  and  allegiance  and  claimed 
independence.  Then  he  tries  to  say  that 
he  was  tempted  by  God  ;  but  he  is  con- 
scious that  he  lies ;  he  knows  that  his  act 
was  one  of  submission  to  another  than  God, 
that  it  was  a  secret  defiance  of  Him.  He 
had  a  right  to  believe  that  God  placed  him 
in  the  circumstances  which  his  own  Avill  has 
made  destructive  ;  but  that  belief,  if  he  had 
hallowed  the  Name  of  God,  if  he  had  cried, 
"  Thy  \vill  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in 
heaven,"  Avould  have  been  a  security  against 
the  Temptation  ;  it  would  have  given  him 
confidence  to  cry,  "  Thou,  Father,  art  lead- 
ing me  ;  bring  me  not  into  this  temptation, 
but  through  it." 

The  deflections  Und  eccentricities,  then, 
which  sin  has  introduced  into  our  lives  do 
not  make  the  life  of  our  Lord,  which  exhibits 
to  us  humanity  in  its  orderly  state,  in  its 
perfect  harmony,  a  less  practical  standard  ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  oblige  us  to  look  for 


124    LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.     [Serm. 

such  a  standard ;  we  cannot  measure  or 
interpret  our  own  acts  without  it.  In  the 
sunlight  of  his  history,  our  relations  to  the 
Father,  and  to  all  which  opposes  Him,  stand 
out  clearly  and  distinctly  revealed ;  though 
it  is  only  in  prayer  and  in  action  that  we 
can  fully  appropriate  the  lesson,  and  feel 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  to  be  also  a  truth 
in  us. 

However  strange  it  may  be  to  affirm  that 
God  is  leading  us  every  day  into  some  cir- 
cumstances of  temptation,  and  that  here  Hes 
the  very  strength  and  warrant  of  the  prayer 
that  He  will  not  bring  us  into  it  —  will  not 
suffer  our  enemies  to  prevail  against  us  ;  we 
can  boldly  adopt  that  paradox,  and  find  the 
blessing  of  it  in  all  ordinary  events  and  in 
all  terrible  emergencies.  Riches,  we  know, 
are  temptations ;  poverty,  we  know  equally, 
is  a  very  great  one.  The  king  in  the  Prov- 
erbs might  be  judicious  in  desiring  a  mean  ; 
but  therein  too  lies  a  peril  of  its  own,  — 
a  kind  of  secure  hardness,  self-indulgence 
comforting  itseK  with  the  assurance  that  it 
is  not  luxury,  the  rich  and  the  poor  man's 
sins  both  regarded  with  abhorrence  because 
they  interfere  mth  us  and  there  is  no  knowl- 
edge of  either.     What  wild  pride  and  reck- 


VII.]     LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMP TA TION.       125 

lessness  there  is  in  the  sense  of  hjealth  !  how 
miserably  are  those  deceived  who  fancy  that 
a  sick-bed  is  in  itself  a  cure  for  natural  in- 
firmities, and  not  an  aggravation  of  them 
and  an  excuse  for  them!  What  selfishness 
is  there  in  possession,  but  O !  how  it  turns 
inward,  how  gnawing  it  becomes  in  the 
hour  of  deprivation  and  loss.  Various  gifts 
and  endowments  we  speak  of  as  full  of 
danger,  and  yet  the  man  in  the  Gospel  hid 
his  talent  in  the  earth  because  he  had  only 
one.  The  physician,  lawyer,  divine,  may 
each  suspect  that  the  other  has  some  especial 
means  of  usefulness,  some  exemption  from 
evils  which  he  has  felt ;  but  the  heart  knows 
its  own  bitterness  ;  not  one  of  them  is  wrong 
in  saying  that  liis  position  is  full  of  snares  ; 
and  that  what  seem  to  the  on-looker  secur- 
ities, are  really  dangers.  If  the  busy  man 
is  every  day  tempted  to  worsliip  the  ido- 
lafori^' how  many  idola  speeds  are  there 
which  continually  seduce  the  contemplative 
man  from  his  allegiance  !  How  easy  it  is 
for  monks  to  bring  evidence  that  marriage 
makes  the  soul  less  free  ;  how  utterly  they 
fail  when  they  would  praise  the  safety  of 
celibacy.  When  the  characters  of  those  who 
are  bound  together  are  unsuitable,  what  ir- 


126    LEAD  USNOTINTO  TEMP TA TI ON.    [Serm. 

ritation  and  restlessness  ;  if  they  perfectly 
accord,  what  fear  that  each  may  confirm 
that  which  is  wrong  in  the  other !  How 
free  from  all  debate  and  turmoil  the  halls  of 
philosophy  may  be  thought  by  one  who  has 
only  known  the  region  of  politics ;  some- 
times men  escape  from  both  for  security  to 
the  religious  world,  and  find  that  there  they 
are  in  the  midst  of  more  fierce  and  impla- 
cable contentions. 

The  last  discovery  seems  appalling.  Can 
religious  habits,  a  religious  atmosphere, 
tempt  us  into  evil,  into  falsehood,  into 
Atheism  ?  Experience  answers.  Yes  !  It 
tells  us  not  only  that  no  sect,  no  Church,  is 
free  from  these  dangers,  but  more,  that  sects 
and  even  Churches  directly  or  implicitly, 
by  the  idolatries  or  self -righteousness  which 
they  encourage,  or  by  the  reaction  against 
them,  by  pious  frauds,  or  the  unbelief  which 
follows  upon  their  detection,  may  lead  us 
into  utter  ruin.  It  is  most  necessary,  in 
our  day  especially,  to  know  that  fact,  and 
to  keep  it  in  our  recollection.  There  may 
be  a  Protestantism,  a  Catholicism,  a  Chris- 
tianity without  a  God ;  all  that  sounds  most 
religious,  all  that  really  is  full  of  deepest 
worth,   of  divinest  meaning,  —  confessions, 


VII.]      LEAD  us  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.      127 

ordinances,  the  Bible,  —  may  be  used  to 
make  us  in  practice,  and  ultimately  in 
theory,  deniers  of  Him  from  whom  they 
have  proceeded  and  of  whom  they  speak. 
Where  then  lies  the  security?  In  this,  that 
He  zs,  that  He  lives,  and  that  in  one  con- 
dition or  another  we  are  still  led  by  Him. 
Into  what  perils  soever  we  have  come,  into 
what  perils  soever  we  may  come,  let  us  be 
sure  it  was  not  the  Evil  Spirit,  but  God 
Himself  who  ordered  the  whole  frame  and 
condition  of  our  lives,  and  that  this  frame 
and  condition  is  not  the  worst  but  the  best 
possible  for  us,  the  best  possible  thougli 
—  yea,  because  —  it  is  one  of  tremendous 
temptation.  Let  us  be  equally  sure  that  He 
is  not  our  tempter  ;  that  He  never  tempted 
any  man  to  evil ;  that  we  fall  into  it  only  V 
when  we  think  He  is  not  Avith  us  to  deliver  \ 
us  from  it ;  that  to  think  so  is  to  believe  a 
lie  ;  that  at  all  times,  and  in  all  possible 
states,  this  is  a  right  and  true  prayer  which 
He  inspires  and  which  He  hears.  "  Bring 
us  not  into  temptation."  Those  old  words, 
"  The  Lord  is  my  Shepherd,  therefore  can  I 
want  nothing.  He  prepareth  a  table  for  me 
in  the  midst  of  mine  enemies.  Though  I 
walk   through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 


128    LEAD  us  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.    [Serm. 

death,  thou  art  with  me  ;  thy  rod  and  thy 
staff  they  comfort  me ;  "  these  words  have 
lasted  three  thousand  years,  and  they  are 
just  as  living  and  as  good  now  as  they  ever 
were  ;  as  adapted  to  the  temptations  of  every 
Englishman  in  the  19th  century  as  to  those 
of  David. 

The  words,  "  Lead  us  not  into  Tempta- 
tion," are  of  the  same  kind;  equally  re- 
minding us  that  we  are  in  the  midst  of 
enemies,  that  we  may  have  to  pass  through 
a  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  through  a 
state  of  utter  darkness  ;  equally  telling  us 
that  there  is  One  who  provides  us  a  table 
now,  and  will  be  with  us  then.  But  it  is  a 
prayer  which  goes  down  more  deeply,  for 
He  taught  his  disciples  to  use  it,  for  whom 
the  table  had  been  prepared  in  the  wilder- 
ness where  there  was  no  bread,  but  only 
stones  ;  who  was  Himself  to  pass  through 
the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  and  to 
feel  all  that  can  be  felt  of  desertion  and  soli- 
tude there.  He  bids  us  say,  "  Lead  us  not 
into  Temptation,"  assuring  us  that  God  is 
not  merely  the  Shepherd  over  each  lonely 
man,  when  passing  through  hours  and  days 
of  gloom  and  doubt  and  anguish  which  no 
other  creature  knows  of,  but  that  He  is  also 


VII.]      LEAD  us  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.      129 

tlie  Guide  of  the  flock,  of  his  o^yn  Chiirch 
upon  earth,  and  of  the  great  human  family, 
out  of  darkness  into  his  marvelous  hght. 
"  Lead  us  not  into  Temptation,"  said  He 
who  is  the  Head  of  the  Avhole  body,  inti- 
mating that  though  it  consists  of  many 
members,  and  each  has  its  own  special  trial, 
which  would  not  be  precisely  such  an  one  to 
any  other,  — though  it  often  seems  as  if  this 
were  the  greatest  hardship  and  misery  of 
all,  that  sorrow  is  incommunicable,  that 
each  person  understands  so  little  of  his 
neighbor's,  —  yet  in  spite  of  this  seeming 
diversity  and  solitude,  there  is  the  most 
intimate  relation  between  all  the  parts  of 
the  body,  that  what  affects  one  of  necessity 
affects  all.  We  know  it  to  be  so,  and  in 
our  different  ways  express  the  conviction. 
We  talk  of  family  likenesses,  of  national 
feelings,  of  a  particular  age  having  its 
characteristic  tendencies,  its  own  special 
good  and  evil/  The  observation  of  these 
sympathies  is  one  of  the  necessary  qualifi- 
cations for  conversing  with  men  and  de- 
scribing their  acts  ;  we  may  have  made  com- 
paratively small  progress  in  the  inquiry, 
but  all  confess  it  to  be  real  and  full  of 
interest.  Our  hearts  bear  witness  to  the 
9 


130    LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.    [Serm. 

Scripture  assertion,  that  we  have  a  common 
Tempter  and  a  common  Deliverer ;  that  all 
things,  though  made  the  instruments  of  one, 
are  yet  actually  and  truly  the  instruments 
of  the  other  ;  that  there  must  be  such  a  cry 
from  all  hearts  as  this,  and  that  it  must  be 
the  most  helpful  and  uniting  of  all  cries  : 
"  Lead  us  not  into  Temptation."  O  strange 
and  mysterious  privilege,  that  some  bed- 
ridden woman  in  a  lonely  garret,  who  feels 
that  she  is  tempted  to  distrust  the  love  and 
mercy  of  Him  who  sent  his  Son  to  die  for 
the  helpless,  should  wrestle  with  that  doubt, 
saying  the  Lord's  Prayer;  and  that  she 
should  be  thus  asking  help  for  those  who 
are  dwelUng  in  palaces,  who  scarcely  dream 
of  want,  yet  in  their  own  way  are  in  peril 
as  great  as  hers  ;  for  the  student,  who  in  his 
chamber  is  haunted  with  questions  which 
would  seem  to  her  monstrous  and  incredible, 
but  whic^  to  him  are  agonizing ;  for  the 
divine  in  his  terrible  assaults  from  cow- 
ardice, despondency,  vanity,  from  the  sense 
of  his  own  heartlessness,  from  the  shame  of 
past  neglect,  from  the  appalhng  discovery 
of  evils  in  himself  which  he  has  denounced 
in  others,  from  vulgar  outward  temptations 
into  which  he  had  proudly  fancied  that  he 


VII.]      LEAD  us  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION.      131 

could  not  fall,  from  dark  suggestions  recur- 
ring often,  that  words  have  no  realities  cor- 
responding to  them,  that  what  he  speaks  of 
may  mean  nothing  because  to  him  it  has 
often  meant  so  little.  Of  all  this  the  suf- 
ferer knows  nothing,  yet  for  these  she  prays 
—  and  for  the  statesman  who  fancied  the 
world  could  be  moved  by  his  wires,  and 
suddenly  finds  that  it  has  Avires  of  its  own 
which  move  without  his  bidding ;  for  her 
country  under  the  pressure  of  calamities 
which  the  most  skillful  seek  in  vain  to  re- 
dress ;  for  all  other  countries  in  their  throes 
of  anguish  which  may  terminate  in  a  second 
death  or  a  new  life.  For  one  and  all  she 
cries,  "  Lead  us  not  into  temptation."  Their 
temptations  and  hers,  different  in  form,  are 
the  same  in  substance.  They,  like  her,  are 
tempted  to  doubt  that  God  is,  and  that  He 
is  the  Author  of  good,  and  not  of  evil ;  and 
that  He  is  mightier  than  the  evil ;  and  that 
He  can  and  will  overthrow  it,  and  deliver 
the  universe  out  of  it.  This  is  the  real 
temptation  ;  there  is  no  other.  All  events, 
all  things  and  persons,  are  bringing  this 
temptation  before  us  ;  no  man  is  out  of  the 
reach  of  it  who  is  in  God's  world  ;  no  man 
is  intended  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  it  who 


132     LEAD  us  NOT  INTO  TEMP TA TION.    [Serm. 

is  God's  child.  He  himself  has  led  us  into 
this  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil ; 
we  cannot  fly  from  it ;  we  cannot  find  in  one 
corner  of  it  a  safety  which  there  is  not  in 
another  ;  we  cannot  choose  that  we  shall  not 
have  those  temptations  which  are  specially 
fitted  to  reach  our  own  feeUngs,  tempers, 
infirmities  ;  they  will  be  addressed  to  these  ; 
they  will  be  aimed  at  the  heel  or  head,  at 
whatever  part  has  not  been  touched  by  the 
fire,  and  is  most  vulnerable.  We  must  not 
crave  quarter  from  the  enemy ;  to  choose 
for  ourselves  where  we  shall  meet  him,  is  to 
desert  that  guardianship  in  which  is  all 
safety.  But  we  may  cry,  "  Lead  us  not 
into  Temptation ;  "  and  praying  so,  we  pray 
against  ourselves,  against  our  evil  tenden- 
cies, our  eagerness  for  that  which  will  ruin 
us.  Praying  so,  that  which  seemed  to  be 
poison  becomes  medicine  ;  all  circumstances 
are  turned  to  goo,d  ;  honey  is  gathered  out 
of  the  carcase  ;  death  itself  is  made  the  min- 
ister of  life. 

Away  then  with  that  cowardly  language 
which  some  of  us  are  apt  to  indulge  in  when 
we  speak  of  one  period  as  more  dangerous 
than  another  ;  when  we  wish  we  were  not 
born  into  the  age  of   revolutions ;  or  com- 


VII.]      LEAD  US  NO'T  INTO  TEMP TA  TI ON.      1 33 

plain  that  the  time  of  quiet  belief  is  passed, 
and  that   henceforth  every  man   must  ask 
himself  whether  he  has  any  ground  to  stand 
upon,  or  whether  all  beneath  him  is  hollow. 
We  are  falling  into  the  temptation,  when  we 
thus  lament  over  it.     We  are  practically  con- 
fessing that  the  Evil  Spirit  is  the  Lord  of 
all ;   that  times  and  seasons  are  in  his  hand. 
Let  us  clear  our  minds  from  every  taint  of 
that  blasphemy.     God  has  brought  us  into 
this  time ;  He,  and  not  ourselves  or  some 
dark  demon.     If  we  are  not  fit  to  cope  with 
that   which   He   has   prepared   for   us,  we 
should  have  been  utterly  unfit  for  any  con- 
dition that  we  imagine  for  ourselves.    In  this 
time  we  are  to  live  and  wrestle,  and  in  no 
other.     Let  us  humbly,  tremblingly,  man- 
fully look  at  it,  and  we  shall  not  wish  that 
the  sun  could  go  back  its  ten  degrees,  or  that 
we  could  go  back  with  it.    If  easy  times  are 
departed,  it  is  that  the  difficult  times  may 
make  us   more  in  earnest ;  that    they  may 
teach  us  not  to  depend  upon  ourselves.     If 
easy  belief   is  impossible,  it  is  that  we  may 
learn  what  belief  is,  and  in  whom  it  is  to  be 
placed.     If  an  hour  is  at  hand  which  will 
try  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  it  is  that 
we  may  learn  for  all  to  say,  "  Lead  us  not 


134  LEAD  US  NOT,  ETC.        [Serm.  VII 

into  the  Temptation  "  of  our  times ;  that  so 
we  may  be  enabled  with  greater  confidence 
and  hope  to  join  in  the  cry  of  every  time, 
"  Deliver  us  from  Evil." 


SERMON  VIII. 

FOURTH  SUNDAY  IX  LENT. 
Deliver  us  from  Evil.  —  Luke  xi.  4. 

T^THEN  a  man  prays,  "  Lead  us  not  into 
^  '  Temptation,"  he  prays  against  him- 
self ;  prays  that  he  may  not  go  where  he  has 
an  inclination  to  go ;  prays  that  neither  he 
nor  his  brethren  may  have  what  they  have 
a  false  taste  for,  even  though  God's  hand 
seems  to  offer  it  them.  Sueh  a  prayer,  till 
we  know  something  of  ourselves,  something 
of  his  purpose  in  placing  us  here,  must  needs 
appear  strange  and  perplexing.  Is  not  the 
one  which  follows  it  altogether  different ; 
the  simplest,  most  spontaneous  utterance  of 
the  heart ;  one  which  all  the  world  has  been 
pouring  forth  ;  which  we  should  certainly 
have  learnt,  though  no  one  had  taught  it 
us? 

It  would  be  idle,  indeed,  to  deny  the  uni- 
versality of  this  prayer.    Wherever  men  are 


136  DELIVER    VS  FROM  EVIL.  [Serm. 

visited  by  any  storm,  or  fire,  or  earthquake ; 
wherever  they  are  plagued  with  any  bodily 
sickness;  wherever  they  are  oppressed  by 
their  fellow-men ;  wherever  they  have  a 
vague  sense  of  being  crushed  by  fortune  ; 
wherever  they  have  learnt  to  look  upon  cus- 
tom or  law  as  an  incubus  ;  wherever  they  are 
stifled  by  systems  ;  wherever  they  are  con- 
scious of  a  remorse  which  stays  with  them 
and  moves  with  them ;  there  is  a  cry  ascend- 
ing to  some  power,  kno^vn  or  unknown,  "  De- 
liver us  from  Evil."  The  question  what  evil 
is,  and  whence  it  comes,  is  for  such  sufferers 
of  easy  solution  ;  they  know  well  what  they 
mean  by  it ;  they  know  or  guess  generally 
what  brought  it  to  them  ;  at  all  events  it  has 
overtaken  them.  They  may  suppose  that 
some  fellow-creature  can  rescue  them  from 
it,  or  chance,  or  themselves  ;  they  may  look 
to  the  physician,  the  priest,  the  legislator ; 
to  alterations  in  government;  to  new  dis- 
positions of  property  ;  to  a  friendly  execu- 
tioner ;  to  suicide.  But  a  deliverer  there 
must  be  ;  something  or  some  person  to  hope 
in.  If  once  we  believe  evil  to  be  omnip- 
otent, or  suppose  that  it  was  intended  for 
us  and  we  for  it,  I  do  not  think  it  is  possible 
to  conceive  of  human  society  or  human  life. 


VIII.]  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.  137 

Recollect  the  worship  of  every  country  you 
ever  heard  of,  how  many  names  or  charac- 
teristics of  the  different  divinities  had  rela- 
tion to  deUverance  of  some  kind,  or  to  the 
averting  or  avenging  of  wrong.  If  you  took 
these  away  from  the  mythologies,  you  would 
find  that  there  remained  a  mere  caput  mor- 
tuum  ;  all  that  had  held  them  together  and 
appealed  to  human  trust  and  sympathies 
would  have  escaped. 

Now  it  would  surely  be  a  very  hard  and 
Stoical  doctrine  to  proclaim  that  what  these 
different  creatures  of  our  flesh  and  blood 
have  cried  to  be  saved  from  were  not  really 
evils,  but  only  certain  conditions  of  existence, 
which  they  fancied  to  be  such.  No  one,  I 
should  think,  can  imagine  that  he  served 
truth  by  maintaining  such  a  proposition 
against  the  sense  of  mankind,  and  against 
the  witness  of  his  OAvn  heart.  That  from 
which  men  have  revolted  as  utterly  mmat- 
ural  and  inconsistent  and  unreasonable,  that 
which  they  have  felt  to  be  in  positive  disa- 
greement with  their  constitution,  they  have  a 
right  to  call  an  evil ;  and  all  the  theories,  po- 
litical, philosophical,  religious,  in  the  world, 
can  never  deprive  them  of  the  right.  Nor 
can  these  theories,  so  far  as  I  see,  prove  even 


138  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.  [Serm. 

the  most  extravagant  hopes  that  our  race 
has  indulged  to  be  utterly  vain  and  delusive, 
or  take  from  any  man  the  right  to  seek 
deliverance  from  human  helpers,  kings,  law- 
givers, shepherds  of  the  people  ;  from  his 
own  strong  arm,  from  invisible  helpers,  from 
some  fate  that  is  higher,  sterner,  more  inflex- 
ible than  all  other  powers.  There  was  a  war- 
rant for  all  such  hopes,  even  for  hope  from 
the  last  resource  of  self-destruction.  We 
have  no  right  to  take  away  such  refuges 
until  we  can  provide  a  better ;  and  it  is  at 
least  probable  that  if  a  better  be  found,  we 
shall  find  some  explanation  of  all  the  rest. 

We  may  readily  grant  them,  not  only 
that  the  prayer  has  been  offered  in  all 
places  and  in  all  ages,  but  that  in  all  places 
and  in  all  ages  a  deep  truth  has  been  ex- 
pressed in  it.  But  do  we,  therefore,  say 
that  the  prayer  had  no  need  to  be  taught, 
that  it  sprang  up  naturally  in  the  mind  of 
man  without  any  inspiration  from  above, 
that  it  was  not  hke  the  former,  the  petition 
of  a  man  against  himself,  but  altogether  one 
from  and  for  himself  ?  I  rather  think  the 
evidence,  if  it  is  well  considered,  will  lead 
us  just  to  the  opposite  conclusion  ;  that  the 
prayer  was,  in  all  cases.,  taught  and  inspired 


VIII.]  DELIVER    US  FROM  EVIL.  139 

from  above ;  that  what  was  contributed  to 
it  by  the  natural  heart  of  man  in  his  differ- 
ent circumstances  and  positions,  was  just 
the  false,  confused  element  of  it,  just  that 
which  narrowed  its  scope  and  divided  its 
object ;  that  in  its  true  sense  and  purport  it 
is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  cry  against 
temptation  ;  that  He  who  imparted  it  to 
men  in  the  old  time,  was  He  who  gave  it  to 
his  disciples  in  its  clearness  and  purity,  in 
its  length  and  breadth,  when  He  said, 
'•'  After  this  manner,  therefore,  pray  ye : 
Our  Father  —  dehver  us  from  evil." 

I.  Other  portions  of  the  Lord's  Prayer 
have  led  me  to  remark  that  there  is  a  fear- 
ful tendency  in  us  all,  which  has  infused  it- 
self most  mischievously  into  our  theology, 
to  look  first  at  our  necessity  or  misery,  only 
afterwards  at  our  relation  to  God,  and  at 
his  nature.  The  last  are  made  dependent 
upon  the  former.  We  are  conscious  of  a 
derangement  in  our  condition ;  simply  in 
reference  to  this  derangement  do  we  con- 
template Him  who  we  hope  may  reform  it. 
We  have  just  been  tracing  this  process  in 
heathenism.  A  mischief  is  felt ;  if  there  is 
a  mischief,  there  must  be  a  deliverer.  Un- 
doubtedly the  conscience  bears  this  witness, 


140  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.  [Serm. 

and  it  is  a  right  one.  But  the  qualities  of 
the  deliverer  are  determined  by  the  charac- 
ter or  locality  of  that  which  is  to  be  re- 
dressed, or  by  the  habits  of  those  who  are 
suffering  from  it.  From  this  heathenish 
habit  of  mind  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  the 
great  preserver.  Say  first,  "  Our  Father." 
This  relation  is  fixed,  established,  certain. 
It  existed  in  Christ  before  all  worlds ;  it 
was  manifested  when  He  came  in  the  flesh. 
He  is  ascended  on  high,  that  we  may  claim 
it.  Let  us  be  certain  that  we  ground  all  our 
thoughts  upon  these  opening  words  ;  till  we 
know  them  well  by  heart,  do  not  let  us  lis- 
ten to  the  rest.  Let  us  go  on  carefully, 
step  by  step,  to  the  Name,  the  Kingdom,  the 
Will,  assuring  ourselves  of  our  footing,  con- 
fident thatwe  are  in  a  region  of  clear  un- 
mixed goodness ;  of  goodness  which  is  to  be 
hallowed  by  us  ;  which  has  come  and  shall 
come  to  us,  and  in  us ;  which  is  to  be  done 
on  earth,  not  merely  in  heaven.  Then  we 
are  in  a  condition  to  make  these  petitions, 
which  we  are  ordinarily  in  such  haste  to  ut- 
ter, and  which  He,  in  whom  all  wisdom 
dwells,  commands  us  to  defer.  Last  of  all 
comes  this  "  Deliver  us  from  evil."  When 
we  are  able  to  look  upon  evil,  not  as  the 


YIII.  DELIVER    US  FROM  EVIL.  141 

regular  normal  state  of  the  universe,  but  as 
absolutely  at  variance  with  the  character  of 
its  Author,  with  his  constitution  of  it,  with 
the  Spirit  which  He  has  given  to  us,  that 
we  can  pray,  attaching  some  real  signifi- 
cance to  the  language.  Deliver  us  from  it,  — 
then  we  shall  understand  why  men  looked 
with  faith  to  the  aid  of  their  fellow-men ;  to 
princes,  and  cliieftains,  and  lawgivers,  and 
sages.  They  were  sent  into  the  world  for 
this  end,  upon  this  mission.  They  were 
meant  to  act  as  deliverers.  They  were  to 
be  witnesses  of  a  real  righteous  order,  and 
to  resist  all  transgressors  of  it.  We  can 
understand  why  strong  men  felt  that  they 
had  better  act  for  themselves  than  depend 
upon  foreign  help.  For  the  Father  of  all 
put  their  strength  into  them,  that  they 
might  wield  it  as  his  servants  in  his  work  ; 
it  was  his  Spirit  who  made  them  conscious 
of  their  strength,  and  of  that  purpose  for 
which  they  were  to  use  it.  We  can  see 
why  these  hopes  were  so  continually  disap- 
pointed, though  they  had  so  right  a  founda- 
tion;  why  they  were  driven  to  think  of 
higher  aid,  of  invisible  champions,  because 
those  upon  the  earth  proved  feeble,  or  de- 
serted the   cause,  and   served  themselves. 


142  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.         [Serm. 

It  is  true  that  the  hosts  of  heaven  are  obey- 
ing that  Power  which  the  hosts  of  earth  are 
commanded  to  obey ;  that  they  are  doing 
his  service  by  succoring  those  who  are  toil- 
ing below  ;  it  is  true,  because  He  who  rules 
all  is  not  a  destiny,  but  a  loving  will ;  not 
an  abstraction,  but  a  Person  ;  not  a  mere 
sovereign,  but  a  Father.  All  creation  is 
ordered  upon  this  law  of  mutual  dependence 
and  charity;  but  it  is  only  in  the  knowl- 
edge and  worship  of  the  Highest  that  we 
can  apprehend  the  places  and  tasks  of  the 
lower ;  when  He  is  hidden,  these  are  for- 
gotten ;  society  becomes  incoherent ;  noth- 
ing understands  itself ;  everything  is  in- 
verted ;  the  deliverer  is  one  with  the  tyrant ; 
evil  and  good  run  into  each  other ;  we  in- 
voke Satan  to  cast  out  Satan.  See,  then, 
what  a  restorative,  regenerative  power  Hes 
in  this  prayer  !  See  what  need  there  was 
that  the  Son  of  God  should  come  from  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  to  make  men  know 
that  they  were  not  orphans,  to  show  how 
they  might  be  in  fact,  and  not  merely  in 
idea,  children ! 

II.  For  now  it  is  not  any  longer  by  this 
or  that  man,  or  unseen  power,  by  this  or 
that  subordinate  agency,  by  this  or  that  al- 


Vm.]  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.  143 

teration  of  events  and  circumstances,  tliat 
we  are  forced  to  bound  our  plans  and  pros- 
pects of  deliverance.  We  have  not  to  work 
our  way  upwards  by  stairs  winding,  broken, 
endless,  to  an  indefinite  shado^vy  point, 
which  we  are  afraid  to  reach,  lest  it  should 
prove  to  be  nothing.  We  begin  from  the 
summit ;  we  find  there  the  substance  of  all 
the  hope  men  have  drawn  from  the  promis- 
ing, but  changeable,  aspects  of  the  cloud- 
land  below ;  we  see  that  all  the  darkness  of 
earth,  all  its  manifold  forms  of  evil,  have 
come  from  the  rays  being  intercepted,  which 
would  have  scattered  it  and  shall  scatter  it 
altogether.  Therefore  we  pray  boldly,  '^  De- 
liver us  from  evil,"  knowing  assuredly  that 
we  are  praying  to  be  set  free  from  that  to 
which  the  ^\i\\  of  the  Creator  is  opposed, 
against  which  all  the  powers  of  the  universe 
are  engaged  ;  that  which  all  natural  things, 
doing  Him  quiet  homage,  are  punishing ; 
that  against  which  all  voluntary  creatures 
by  the  law  of  their  being  are  pledged  to  co- 
operate. We  are  praying  against  that  which 
men  have  not  been  praying  against  in  vain 
for  six  thousand  years,  but  rather  which 
they  have  been  stemming,  overcoming  con- 
tinually ;  each  of  their  prayers,  if  offered  in 


144  DELIVER    US  FROM  EVIL.  [Sekm. 

ever  so  much  dimness  and  confusion,  open- 
ing a  vision  out  of  the  darkness,  because 
each  joi  them  derived  its  first  impulse  from 
Him,  who  through  them,  and  in  answer  to 
them,  was  preparing  the  full  discovery  of 
Himself,  and  of  that  strength  whereby  all 
that  resists  Him  shall  be  broken.  I  say 
the  prayer  offered  with  this  recollection, 
becomes  one  full  of  cheerfulness  and  con- 
fidence. The  difficulty  is,  to  offer  it  in  that 
recollection.  God  forbid  that  I  should  speak 
lightly  of  that  difficulty  !  knowing  how  great 
it  is  ;  how  hard,  when  evil  is  above,  beneath, 
within  ;  when  it  faces  you  in  the  world,  and 
scares  you  in  the  closet;  when  you  hear 
it  saying  in  your  own  heart,  and  saying 
in  every  one  else,  "  Our  name  is  Legion ; " 
when  sometimes  you  seem  to  be  carrying 
the  world's  sins  upon  yourself,  and  then  for- 
get them  and  yourseK  altogether, — which 
is  worse  and  brings  a  heavier  sense  of  mis- 
ery afterwards  ;  when  all  schemes  of  redress 
seem  to  make  the  evil  under  which  the 
earth  is  groaning  more  malignant ;  when  our 
own  history,  and  the  history  of  mankind, 
seems  to  be  mockiag  at  every  effort  for  life, 
and  to  be  bidding  us  rest  contented  in  death ; 
O,  it  is  hard,  most  hard,  to  think  that  such 


VIII.]  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.  145 

a  prayer  as  this  is  not  another  of  the  cheats 
and  self-dehisions  in  which  we  have  worn  out 
existence  !  But,  courage  !  if  the  evil  were 
less  pressing,  we  might  have  leisure  to  doubt 
the  remedy;  when  all  possibilities  are  ex- 
hausted, we  begin  to  understand  that  here  is 
certainty ;  we  must  believe  on  some  ground 
or  other  that  evil  is  not  absolute,  not  vic- 
torious ;  we  must  beUeve  it  honestly,  and 
without  a  trick,  not  pretending  that  it  is 
nothing,  when  we  feel  inwardly  that  it  is 
only  not  at  all.  And  we  can  believe  it 
honestly  with  our  whole  hearts,  while  we 
say,  "  Our  Father  —  deliver  us  from  the 
evil."  Then  that  which  seemed  so  terrible, 
because  it  was  so  manifold,  is  condensed  into 
one  ;  it  means  in  all  its  forms  that  which  is 
opposed  to  the  mind  and  will  of  Him,  who 
so  loved  the  world,  as  to  give  his  only-be- 
gotten Son,  that  we  might  be  his  children, 
and  brethren  one  of  another. 

III.  This  truth,  that  evil,  though  by  its 
nature  multiform  and  contradictory,  has  nev- 
ertheless a  central  root,  our  Lord  teaches 
us  by  his  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  and 
again  by  the  prayer,  "  Dehver  us  from  the 
evil."  He,  for  the  first  time,  made  it  fully 
evident  that  mankind  has  not  merely  ene- 
10 


146  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.         [Serm. 

mies,  but  an  enemy  ;  that  neither  the  vari- 
ous external  torments  which  seem  to  make 
up  evil,  nor  the  desires  and  appetites  of  the 
man  himself,  upon  which  we  often  charge 
it,  create  or  constitute  the  mystery  of  iniq- 
uity which  is  at  work.  Most  blessed  was 
this  discovery ;  it  justified  the  thoughts 
which  had  been  in  a  number  of  hearts ;  it 
justified  the  ways  of  God.  I  said  that  the 
Stoical  denial  of  external  evil  is  an  artificial 
doctrine,  at  war  with  conscience  and  reason. 
Our  Lord  never  for  a  moment  yielded  to  it ; 
He  acknowledged  palsies,  and  hunger,  and 
leprosies  to  be  plagues  and  curses,  from 
which  men  should  seek  deliverance.  But 
He  did  at  the  same  time  explain  wherein 
the  truth  of  Stoicism  lay.  He  showed  that 
these  sufferings  are  not  the  evils  of  man ; 
they  belong  to  a  wrong  condition,  but  they 
are  not  the  causes  of  it ;  nay,  their  sting 
may  be  taken  out  of  them,  they  may  be- 
come instruments  for  the  cure  and  destruc- 
tion of  evil.  He  Himself  underwent  them  ; 
He  felt  them  as  none  ever  felt  them  ;  so  He 
showed  that  men  are  intended  to  feel  them. 
He  exhibited  love  and  mercy  in  them,  and 
through  them  ;  so  He  showed  that  they  are 
not  the  masters  of  the  will ;  that  they  may 


VIII.]  DELIVER    US  FROM  EVIL.  147 

be  its  servants.  Equally  does  He  prove 
that  the  good  things  of  life,  the  riches  and 
beauty  of  the  universe,  are  not  the  origin  of 
its  evils,  as  men  have  wickedly  imagined ; 
and  if  not,  then  that  the  desires  and  appe- 
tites of  our  heart,  which  correspond  to  these, 
and  which  they  address,  are  not  the  origin 
of  evil,  and  carry  in  them  no  necessary  cor- 
ruption. And  yet  He  does  bring  the  sense 
of  evil  nearer  to  us  than  it  was  ever  brought 
before;  He  does  explain  by  his  words,  by 
his  life,  why  we  must  feel  that  evil  to  be 
actually  bound  up  with  ourselves,  why  it  is 
the  most  difficult  of  all  things  not  to  iden- 
tify it  with  ourselves.  For  He  by  bidding 
us  deny  ourselves.  He  by  giving  up  Himself 
in  every  thought  and  act,  He  by  presenting 
Himself  as  the  one  great  Sacrifice  to  the 
Father,  makes  us  perceive  that  the  setting 
up  of  self,  the  worship  of  self,  is  the  evil 
from  which  all  others  flow,  from  which  we 
are  to  pray,  "Deliver  us."  Here  is  the 
wonderful  Gospel  mystery  which  meets  all 
the  mysteries  of  our  own  hearts  and  of  the 
world,  and  expounds  them.  Here  is  that, 
which  makes  that  last  refuge  of  man  in  self- 
murder  intelligible.  It  is  self  he  wants  to 
get  rid  of ;  he  has   sought  evil  elsewhere, 


148  DELIVER   US  FROM  EVIL.  [Serm. 

and  not  found  it ;  lie  has  it  in  his  own  be- 
ing ;  that  must  perish.  What  a  sense  of 
solitude  must  be  in  the  spirit  before  it  can 
dream  of  such  an  act !  what  a  feeling  that 
all  which  it  has  seen  without  is  centered 
within  !  And  yet  what  it  feels  in  that  hour, 
all  the  world  is  feeling  in  a  measure  ;  this 
self  is  the  curse  of  each,  as  much  as  it  is 
his.  O  !  if  he  could  rise  for  a  moment  to 
that  perception,  if  he  could  feel  "It  is  not 
/,  it  is  the  spirit  of  self-will,  who  is  counter- 
feiting me  ;  it  is  this  from  which  I  must  be 
deUvered;  it  is  this  from  which  my  race 
must  be  delivered !  That  each  may  be 
himself,  that  the  universe  may  be  what  the 
Lord  of  all  created  it  to  be ;  this  must  be 
overcome  for  each,  for  all."  With  what  a 
new  and  wonderful  feeling  would  he  then 
turn  to  the  wOrds,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of 
God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world  !  "  "  Lo,  I  come,  (in  the  volume  of 
the  book  it  is  written  of  me,)  to  do  thy 
will,  O  God  :  thy  law  is  within  my  heart ;  " 
and  to  this,  "  By  the  which  will  we  are 
sanctified,  through  the  offering  of  the  body 
of  Christ  once  for  all."  Such  words  may 
have  seemed  hitherto  quite  vague,  the  frag- 
ments of  an  obsolete  theology.     Seen  in  the 


VIII.]  DELIVER    US  FROM   EVIL.  149 

light  of  this  discovery  respecting  the  nature 
of  Evil,  seen  in  the  light  of  that  other  more 
glorious  discovery  respecting  the  infinite 
charity  of  God,  how  they  harmonize  with 
all  that  our  hearts  had  prophesied  of,  with 
our  consciousness  that  we  have  capacities 
of  sympathy  and  fellowship,  which  are  de- 
stroyed by  self-will ;  with  the  conditions  of 
a  world,  created  for  brotherhood,  destroyed 
by  the  same  self-will.  How  little  a  man, 
who  has  learnt  this  lesson,  wishes  any  more 
to  resolve  the  evil  spirit  into  the  feeluigs 
and  passions  of  the  individual  heart  I  How 
he  abhors  such  implicit  practical  Manichee- 
ism,  against  which  Christ's  temptation,  and 
the  history  of  his  redemption,  extending  as 
it  does  to  every  thought  and  movement  and 
appetite  of  our  souls  and  bodies,  as  well  as 
to  the  whole  outward  universe,  is  the  pro- 
test !  How  he  must  rejoice  to  think,  ''  I 
can  pray,  I  will  pray.  Deliver  us  from  the 
evil.  I  will  pray  to  the  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  against  myself,  against  my  in- 
clination to  make  self  the  object  of  my  ex- 
istence, of  my  worship,  against  every  act 
and  thought  which  involves  that  inclination. 
I  will  pray  to  Him,  whose  will  is  that  I 
should  be   in   submission   to   Him,   that   I 


150  DELIVER    US  FROM  EVIL.  [Seem. 

should  be  his  servant  in  all  the  powers  and 
affections  of  my  spirit,  soul,  and  body ;  who 
would  use  all  these  for  the  manifestation  of 
his  love,  for  the  deliverance  of  his  creatures. 
I  will  pray  to  Him  in  the  confidence  that 
He  has  accepted  the  perfect  sacrifice  of  his 
Son  for  me,  and  for  all  mankind,  the  sacri- 
fice which  He  had  Himself  prepared,  the 
sacrifice  which  was  the  fruit  and  perfect 
setting  forth  of  his  own  love,  the  sacrifice 
which  was  presented  to  Him  by  the  Ever- 
lasting Spirit.  I  will  pray  in  the  confi- 
dence that  He  will  receive  the  sacrifice  of 
myself  and  of  all  to  Him  in  that  Name.  I 
will  pray  in  the  certainty  that  He  is  main- 
taining a  conflict  with  the  self-will  which  is 
the  curse  and  dislocation  of  the  world,  and 
that  every  plague,  pestilence,  insurrection, 
revolution,  is  a  step  in  the  history  of  that 
conflict,  tending  towards  the  final  victory. 
I  will  pray  that  we  may  not  be  cast  down 
and  lose  faith,  because  change  after  change 
only  seems  to  bring  out  the  evil  more  fear- 
fully, to  exhibit  some  darker  and  more  in- 
ward form  of  it.  I  will  pray  that  we  may 
not  acquiesce  in  any  evil  about  us,  or  within 
us,  because  we  fancy  that  a  worse  might 
come  from  its  removal.     I  will  pray  to  feel 


VIII.]  DELIVER    US  FROM  EVIL.  151 

that  our  only  safety  is  in  the  God  of  truth 
and  love,  to  recollect  that  seK-Avill,  as  its 
different  veils  and  bandages  and  rags  of 
borrowed  finery  fall  off,  must  be  displayed 
more  nakedly  and  horribly  ;  to  give  thanks, 
nevertheless,  that  its  resources  are  nearly 
exhausted,  that  its  rage  mil  be  fiercest 
when  its  hour  is  shortest ;  to  make,  there- 
fore, no  truce  with  it ;  to  wish  none  for  my 
fellow-men  ;  to  act  and  hve  in  the  confi- 
dence that  if  we  wait  the  appointed  time, 
the  travail-hour  of  creation.  He  who  over- 
came the  principalities  and  powers  of  evil 
in  the  wilderness,  in  the  city,  on  the  cross, 
in  the  sepulclire,  and  who  ascended  on  high, 
making  a  show  of  them  openly,  will  fully 
deliver  us  and  our  race  from  them,  that  we 
may  serve  without  fear  Him,  the  Father, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  one  God,  world 
without  end. 


SERMON  IX. 

FIFTH  SUNDAY  IN  LENT. 


For  Thine  is  the  Kingdom,  and  the  Power,  and  the 
Glory,  forever.    Amen.  —  Matthew  vi.  13. 

A  S  this  Doxology  occurs  in  only  one 
"^  Evangelist,  the  Church,  in  her  repeti- 
tions of  the  prayer,  omits  it  at  least  as  often 
as  she  uses  it.  The  idea  contained  in  the 
words  has  been  expressed  already  ;  it  is  in- 
volved in  all  the  petitions.  But  the  distinct 
utterance  of  it  at  the  close  of  the  prayer 
teaches  us  some  lessons  which  the  prayer 
might  fail  to  teach  us,  and  yet  which  we 
must  always  remember  if  we  would  say  it 
truly. 

I.  The  words,  "  Thine  is  the  Kingdom," 
certainly  assume  that  it  is  not  ours.  Now 
if  by  "  Kingdom  "  we  understand  the  king- 
dom of  Nature,  the  courses  of  the  planets, 
the  succession  of  day  and  night,  of  seed-time 
and  harvest,  perhaps  the  temptation  to  say, 


Serm.  IX.]     FOR   THINE  IS  THE  KINGDOM.    153 

"  This  is  ours,"  may  not  be  very  great. 
Some  Opifex  Mundi^  or  Intelligent  Princi- 
ple, or  Demiurgus,  or  fixed  law,  may  be  ad- 
mitted to  preside  over  these  arrangements. 
But  if  we  apply  "  kingdom,"  as  I  suppose 
most  of  us  would,  to  the  order  and  conduct 
of  human  society  generally,  or  in  some  of 
its  particular  divisions,  the  feehng  is  very 
different.  Here  we  have  a  claim  to  be 
toasters ;  over  this  order  man  exercises  a 
most  evident  influence.  Is  there  anything 
monstrous  in  the  notion,  that  he  established 
it,  and  that  he  upholds  it  ?  There  can  be 
nothing  strange  in  it,  for  we  all  drop  into  it 
most  easily  and  naturally.  True,  there  are 
old  forms  which  denote  a  belief  the  most 
opposite  of  this,  forms  which  indicate  that 
the  highest  ruler  of  the  land,  and  every 
subordinate  magistrate,  derives  his  author- 
ity from  an  Invisible  Person,  to  whom  he  is 
nnder  a  fearful  responsibility  for  the  fulfill- 
ment of  his  duties.  The  recognition  of  an 
actual  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,  of 
One  not  only  interfering  at  certain  crises  to 
disturb  an  existing  monotony,  but  present 
at  all  times,  the  real  source  of  government, 
through  whatever  hands  it  may  be  admin- 
istered,—  this  recognition  enters  assuredly 


154         FOR   THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.    [Serm. 

into  the  institutions  and  laws  of  every  nation 
in  Christendom ;  I  might  say,  of  every  na- 
tion in  the  world.  But  we  have  become 
more  and  more  convinced  that  these  wit- 
nesses are,  as  to  their  real  and  original  in- 
tent, obsolete.  They  belong,  it  is  said,  to  a 
theocratic  period  of  the  world's  history ; 
when  that  had  passed  away  they  hngered 
still  and  are  even  now  not  without  their  use 
in  enforcing  obligations,  the  true  ground  of 
which  cannot  be  apprehended  by  the  people 
at  large,  in  giving  an  historical  sacredness 
and  mystery  to  that  which  would  else  seem 
a  creature  of  the  present ;  in  sustaining  the 
force  of  laws  by  sympathies  and  affections, 
bv  the  terrors  or  hopes  of  another  world. 
But  all  these  explanations  and  apologies 
clearly  assume,  that  the  schemes  for  uphold- 
ing society,  be  they  rehgious  or  secular,  are 
of  our  creation  ;  that  society  itself  is.  Some 
would  throw  a  decent  veil  over  its  origin ; 
some  would  lay  bare  the  savage  contests, 
victories  of  cunning  and  terror,  contests  of 
the  weak  many  and  the  strong  few,  out  of 
which  it  arose  ;  some  would  find  a  resting- 
place  in  the  physical  conformation  and  men- 
tal temperament  of  different  races ;  ulti- 
mately, the  great  majority  of  those  who 


IX.]  FOR    THINE  IS    TEE  KINGDOM.         155 

think  for  themselves,  and  of  those  who  are 
thought  for,  subside  into  the  conclusion  that 
man  is  an  absolute  sovereign  over  liis  own 
social  relations ;  or,  at  all  events,  that  there 
is  merely  a  reserved  right  dwelling  with 
some  other  power,  which  in  ordinary  calcu- 
lations hardly  needs  to  be  taken  into  ac- 
count. It  may  happen,  undoubtedly,  that 
this  claim  of  sovereignty  assumes  a  shape 
which  we  find  starthng.  We  may  be  sud- 
denly required  to  recognize,  not  the  abstract 
phantom,  but  the  practical  exercise  of  popu- 
lar supremacy.  Then  we  begin  to  observe, 
that  whenever  that  which  is  in  conception 
so  sublime  takes  a  concrete  form,  it  is  a 
very  coarse  and  very  narrow  one  ;  the  most 
ignorant  part  of  some  city  or  district  em- 
bodpng  the  great  idea.  We  may  begin  to 
ask.  Whether  that  which  seems  to  be  the 
highest  achievement  of  liberty  does  not  in- 
volve a  perpetual  alternation  of  despotism 
and  servility  ;  whether  that  which  is  the 
last  and  highest  effort  of  reason  does  not 
lead  to  incessant  contradiction?  Such  ex- 
pressions may  be  true,  such  doubts  amply 
justified,  but  do  not  they  come  too  late  ? 
Have  we  not  already  admitted  the  principle, 
sanctioned  the  contradiction  ?     If  this  ulti- 


156         FOR   THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.     [Serm. 

mate  sovereignty  resides  in  any  creatures, 
surely  there  must  be  a  law  of  gravitation 
which  will  make  it  settle  at  last  where  we 
dread  to  think  that  it  is  settling  now.  That 
law  cannot  forever  be  resisted  by  mere  pre- 
scription, or  tricks  of  diplomacy,  or  arms 
which  may  lose  their  edge  and  change  their 
object ;  or,  lastly,  by  spiritual  influences, 
which  we  resort  to  for  a  purpose,  which  we 
wish  to  be  effectual  for  others  but  can  trifle 
with  ourselves.  Surely  all  these  things  must 
come  to  nought ;  all,  that  is  to  say,  which 
interposes  between  us  or  any  country,  and 
the  abyss  of  self-willed  mob  dominion,  if 
these  words  which  we  utter  so  often  have 
not  a  reality  in  them  above  all  realities,  a 
depth  beneath  all  depths.  "Yours,"  says 
our  Lord,  "  is  not  the  kingdom,  though  you 
may  be  called  to  sit  down  in  it,  and  occupy 
honorable  places  in  it ;  though  each  of  you 
has  some  place  in  it ;  some  work  and  office 
assigned  you  by  the  Great  King,  a  rule  over 
a  portion  of  his  subjects.  Yours  is  not  the 
kingdom  ;  nor,  as  so  many  of  you  come  to 
think,  when  all  your  plots  have  failed,  and 
you  are  desperate  of  overcoming  evil  and 
estabUshing  good  in  your  fashion,  is  it  the 
DeviPs  kingdom.     He  claims  it ;  he  says  to 


IX.]         FOR    THINE  IS    TEE  KINGDOM.  157 

you,  as  he  said  to  Me,  *  It  is  mine,  and  I 
give  it  to  whomsoever  I  will.'  On  the 
strength  of  that  assertion  he  bids  you,  as  he 
bade  Me,  fall  down  and  worship  him.  He 
asks  you  to  traffic  with  him  for  the  means 
of  regenerating  your  fellow-creatures,  and 
getting  the  kingdom  out  of  his  hands.  But 
you  can  answer  him  as  I  answered  :  '  It  is 
written.  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  God, 
and  Him  only  shalt  thou  serve.'  You  can 
say,  '  Thine  is  the  kingdom ;  thine  it  is 
now  ;  not  thine  it  shall  be  hereafter.  Thine 
it  is  who  art  our  Father,  and  hast  called  us 
to  be  thy  children.  Thine  it  is,  whom  we 
have  asked  according  to  thy  will  to  deliver 
us  from  the  evil.'  " 

Now,  my  brethren,  in  making  this  ascrip- 
tion, we  do  not  affirm  Theocracy  in  the  sense 
which  some  persons  give  to  that  word,  and 
which  may  well  have  made  it  hateful.  We 
do  not  say,  *'  Thine  is  the  kingdom,"  mean- 
ing that  it  belongs  not  really  to  an  invisible 
Father,  but  really  to  certain  visible  priests, 
who  claim  the  homage  due  to  Him  for  them- 
selves, and  bring  men  into  bondage  by  the 
perversion  of  that  truth  which  is  alone  able 
to  set  them  free.  We  do  not  mean,  accord- 
ing to  the  Filmer  and  Sacheverel  doctrine, 


158       FOR   THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.      [Serm. 

that  the  divine  power  is  transferred  to  cer- 
tain visible  kings,  in  whom  it  rests  absokitely 
and  indefeasibly.  We  do  not  mean,  accord- 
ing to  the  Fifth-monarchy  teachers,  that  this 
kingdom  resides  in  a  certain  body  of  saints 
whom  God  has  authorized  to  claim  the 
world  as  their  possession.  All  these  doc- 
trines we  should  reject,  not  as  exaggerations, 
but  as  evasions ;  not  more  for  their  folly 
than  for  their  profaneness.  If  the  words, 
"  Thine  is  the  kingdom,"  are  true  words, 
priests,  kings,  saints,  must  say  as  much  as 
any,  yea,  more  than  any :  "It  is  not  ours. 
We  exist  only  to  testify  whose  it  is,  only  to 
bring  all  whom  we  can  reach  within  the 
experience  of  its  blessedness."  They  are  to 
make  it  manifest  that  their  consecration  is 
not  a  falsehood ;  that  aU  the  services  by 
which  we  hallow  our  civil,  acts  are  not  hor- 
rible mockeries  ;  that  all  the  forms  of  human 
discourse  which  unconsciously  witness  of  a 
divine  order  and  government,  need  not  for 
the  sake  of  honesty  be  cast  out  of  it,  till  it 
is  reduced  to  little  more  than  the  chattering 
of  savages.  They  are  to  declare  —  we  aU 
of  us,  brethren,  are  pledged  by  our  baptis- 
mal vows,  to  declare  —  that  there  is  an  act- 
ual eternal  ground  for  what  we  have  treated 


IX.]         FOR    THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.  159 

as  fictions,  for  what  men  declare,  and  de- 
clare rightly  if  we  could  by  our  lie  make 
God's  truth  of  none  effect,  to  be  worn-out 
fictions.  We  are  bound  to  affirm  that  a  Fa- 
therly kingdom  is  established  in  the  world  ; 
that  to  be  members  of  it  is  our  highest  ti- 
tle, and  that  the  beggars  of  the  land  share 
it  with  us ;  that  in  it  the  cliief  of  all  is  the 
servant  of  all ;  that  under  Him  all  may  in 
their  respective  spheres  reign  according  to 
this  law;  that  all  ranks  and  orders  stand 
upon  this  tenure,  and  are  preserved  or  over- 
turned by  their  honor  or  contempt  for  it ; 
that  all  offices,  the  highest  and  lowest,  have 
hence  their  responsibility  and  dignity  ;  that 
this  kingdom  has  its  highest  throne  over  the 
human  will,  and  its  secret  impulses  and  de- 
terminations ;  that  it  reaches  to  the  most 
trifling  acts  and  words  ;  that  not  one  of  the 
suffering  myriads  in  a  crowded  city  is  for- 
gotten by  Him  who  is  its  ruler,  any  more 
than  one  of  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  per- 
fect ;  that  when  all  the  subordinate  vassals 
of  the  kingdom  shall  confess  their  depend- 
ence upon  Him,  shall  know  that  He  is, 
and  shall  feel  towards  those  who  are  beneath 
them  and  to  one  another  as  He  feels  towards 
them,  then  his  kingdom  which  is  now,  will 
indeed  have  come  in  power. 


160         FOR   THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.      [Serm. 

II.  And  SO  it  shall  come ;  for  Thine  is  the 
Power »  Different  words  from  the  last,  how- 
ever closely  allied  to  them;  and  I  think 
harder  words  to  say  in  perfect  sincerity. 
Here  we  are  not  hmited,  as  in  the  other 
case.  We  were  obliged  to  confess  that  we 
did  not  call  the  Kingdom  of  Nature  into  ex- 
istence. But  we  do  put  forth  a  great  and 
notorious  power  over  that  kingdom  ;  men 
can  say,  with  much  apparent  justification, 
"  Ours  is  the  power,"  even  there.  Accord- 
ingly they  did  say  it.  The  students  of  Na- 
ture went  forth,  hke  the  Persian  king,  with 
the  chains  wherewith  to  bind  her,  with  the 
magical  sounds  which  were  to  make  her  do 
their  biddings.  But  then  the  humbling 
maxim  was  proclaimed,  which  has  been  the 
foundation  of  all  real  discovery  and  victory 
in  this  department :  "  Man,  the  servant  and 
interpreter  of  Nature,  knows  nothing,  can 
do  nothing,  except  what  he  had  first  observed 
in  her."  All  the  boastings  to  which  two 
centuries  of  wonderful  success  might  have 
given  birth  are  stopped  by  the  recollection, 
that  obedience  to  this  canon  has  been  the 
single  secret  of  success,  that  any  one  who 
would  resist  it,  and  determine  to  conquer 
without  stooping,  has  gone  away  discomfited. 


IX.]         FOR    THINE  IS    TEE  KINGDOM.  161 

Nature,  even  when  she  seems  most  confess- 
ing the  dominion  of  man,  is  sapng  with  all 
her  voices,  "  Yours  is  not  the  power ;  you 
are  learners,  interpreters,  receivers ;  you 
can  use  the  strength  which  you  have  first 
asked  for;  that  is  all." 

Yet  how  wide  a  field  remains,  if  this  is 
denied  us !  Ours  is  surely  the  power,  in 
some  way  or  other,  to  affect  our  fellow-men. 
There  is  the  direct  power  which  lies  in  rela- 
tionship, station,  age  ;  the  power  of  outward 
attractions ;  the  power  of  wealth  ;  the  power 
of  conversation  ;  the  power  of  moving  crowds 
by  speech  ;  the  power  of  written  words  and 
of  song ;  these,  with  all  the  innumerable 
subtle  mysterious  agencies  which  are  only 
known  in  their  operation.  Surely,  whatever 
may  be  said  of  the  objects  to  Avhicli  these 
powers  are  directed,  their  existence  must  be 
admitted.  It  cannot  be  said  that  they  are 
not  put  forth  by  human  beings,  that  they 
are  not  human  powers.  Can  it  be  pretended 
that  they  would  be  in  any  respect  better  if 
they  were  less  vigorous  ;  that  there  is  in 
power  itself  an  inherent  curse  ?  Such  a 
proposition  would,  I  beheve,  be  a  denial  as 
great  as  there  can  be  of  the  truth  which  this 
ascription  afifirms.  But  upon  this  point  ex- 
11 


162        FOR    THINE  IS   THE   KINGDOM.      [Serm. 

perience  has  its  own  testimony  to  bear,  which 
must  be  listened  to,  and  which  cannot  be  at 
variance  Avith  that  which  comes  from  any  true 
authority.  These  exercises  of  power  do  not 
only  bring  ivitli  them  pain,  which  might  be 
easily  understood,  but  after  them,  disap- 
pointment. And  this  not  only  when  the 
end  sought  for  has  been  mean,  but  when 
it  has  been  glorious ;  when  it  has  been  the 
triumph  over  wrong  and  the  setting  up  of 
right.  A  bitter  wail  is  heard  again  and 
again,  that  weak  insignificant  men  do  the 
work  of  the  world,  and  that  those  who  could 
do  it  are  kept  back  or  crushed ;  a  wail  which 
they  who  make  it  are  half  ashamed  of,  but 
which,  nevertheless,  they  cannot  suppress. 
The  thing  that  was  aimed  at  is  not  achieved ; 
hopeless  obstacles  from  the  force  of  circum- 
stances, and  the  ignorance  of  mankind,  are 
said  to  stand  in  the  way.  What  is  stranger 
still,  those  in  whom  no  power  is  apparent, 
who  are  not  conscious  of  its  existence  in  them, 
are  seen  to  exert  it ;  the  meek  people  whom 
the  world  does  not  regard,  whom  the  men  of 
power  have  been  used  to  look  upon  with 
scorn,  effect  what  they  cannot ;  at  some  time 
or  other  that  influence  reaches  even  them  and 
overmasters  them.    Strange  facts,  but  recur- 


IX.]  FOR    THINE  IS    THE  KINGDOM.         163 

ring  continually,  making  up  the  history  of 
mankind!     How   can   they   be   explained? 
They  are  not  explained,  I  think,  to  any  per- 
son who  has  much  vaunted  of  his  o^vn  pow- 
ers, till  he  is  led  to  perceive  that  man,  the 
servant   and  student  of   the  ways  of    God, 
knows  nothing  in  morals,  can  do  nothing  m 
influencing  his  fellow-men,  except  what  he 
hath  first  perceived  in  Him  after  whose  im- 
age he  is  formed.     In  other  and  much  bet- 
ter words,  he  learns  to  say,  ''  Thine  is  the 
power.    Thine  are  the  powers  which  I  have 
found   in   myself    and  called   mine.     From 
thee  they  came,  by  thee  they  must  be  sus- 
tained and  dh-ected.     That  perpetual  rest- 
lessness which  I   have    experienced,  which 
sometimes  made  me  curse  the  world,  some- 
times myself,  sometimes  thy  gifts,  was  the 
effect  of   my  claiming   that  which  did  not 
belong  to  me,  trying  to  wield  armor  which 
was    too   weighty.     Those   whom    I    com- 
plained of   because   they  were   set  in  high 
places,  with  so  little  right  to  be  there,  were 
less  mischievous  than  I  should  have  been, 
because  they  did  less,  struggled  less,  and  left 
more  room  for  thy  working.     Those  whose 
strength   I    was   forced    to   admit,    though 
naturally    I    despised    them,    might    have 


164  FOR    THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.    [Serm. 

fewer  powers  than  mine,  but  what  they  had 
were  submitted  to  thee,  were  confessed  to  be 
thine ;  therefore  they  had  Omnipotence  with 
them.  And  now,  since  thou  hast  taught 
me,  by  sore  and  tremendous  discipline,  that 
I  cannot  strive  with  thee,  I  beheve,  indeed, 
that  Thine  is  the  power ;  the  power  to  make 
this  will  conformable  to  thine ;  the  power 
to  use  what  thou  hast  endowed  me  with  as 
thine  own ;  the  power  to  make  all  circum- 
stances which  have  no  virtue  of  their  own, 
and  which,  whether  sad  or  happy,  may  be 
my  plagues,  really  blessed;  the  power  to 
bring  order  out  of  the  chaos  within  me ; 
the  power  to  change  selfish  remorse  into 
gracious  repentance ;  the  power  to  quicken 
the  bodies  of  thy  saints,  to  restore  the 
age,  to  renew  the  earth,  to  subdue  even  all 
things  to  thyself." 

III.  For  lastly.  Thine  is  the  glory.  To 
what  is  this  Kingdom  tending  ?  What  is  to 
be  accomplished  by  this  power  ?  ''  Though 
we  admit,"  it  is  often  said,  "  that  there  is 
some  Being  who  formed  individuals  and 
human  society,  and  who  is  continually  di- 
recting both,  still,  if  we  hold  Him  to  be  a 
gracious  and  benevolent  Being,  we  cannot 
conceive  Him  to  have  any  object  but  the 


IX.]  FOR    THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.         165 

happiness  or  well-doing  of  his  creatures ; 
we  must  not  dream  that  self-glory  is  ever 
his  aim.  But  if  not,  then  surely  the 
blessedness  and  glory  of  humanity  may  be 
our  ultimate  aim  ;  we  need  not,  cannot  look 
higher."  This  statement  you  must  all  have 
heard  frequently,  m  one  form  of  words  or 
another,  and  we  shall  hear  more  of  it  yet. 
We  ought  not  to  overlook  the  important 
truth  which  is  contained  in  it,  or  to  be  un- 
thankful for  the  confutation  it  contains  of  a 
deadly  doctrine  which  divines  have  been  too 
ready  to  propagate.  If  the  glory  be  his, 
whom  we  have  called  our  Father,  whose 
Name  we  have  desired  to  hallow,  whose 
Kingdom  we  have  prayed  might  come, 
whose  Will  is  to  be  done  on  earth  and  in 
heaven,  who  is  the  Giver  and  the  Forgiver, 
who  guides  us  through  temptation,  and 
brings  us  out  of  evil ;  w^  dare  not  believe 
for  an  instant  that  it  is  a  Self-glorj^  of 
which  we  are  speaking.  It  must  be  that 
which  is  the  eternal  opposite  and  contra- 
diction of  Self-glory ;  the  glory  of  a  Bemg 
whose  name  and  nature  is  Love.  That 
such  a  Being  must  seek  the  good  of  the 
creatures  He  has  formed,  we  are  all  agreed. 
What   we  say  is,  that   He  would   not  be 


166         FOR    THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.     [Serm. 

seeking  the  good  of  his  voluntary  creatures, 
if  He  did  not  raise  them  above  themselves  ; 
if  He  did  not  give  them  a  perfect  absolute 
object  to  behold,  and  to  dwell  in.  Those 
of  our  age  who  speak  so  much  about  the 
glory  of  humanity,  affirm  that  man  wants 
no  such  object,  or  cannot  attain  it  if  he 
does.  Either  it  is  really  the  satisfaction  of 
all  his  wants,  or  else  the  only  one  he  can 
hope  for,  to  be  a  Narcissus,  ever  beholding 
his  own  beauty  and  becoming  more  and 
more  enamored  of  it.  I  am  aware  that 
many  who  use  this  kind  of  language  would 
protest  strongly  against  the  notion  that  a 
man  becomes  necessarily  a  seZf- worshipper, 
a  seeker  of  his  own  glory,  because  he  seeks 
the  glory  of  his  race  or  kind.  I  admit  the 
distinction ;  it  is  a  very  important  one. 
What  I  desire  earnestly  is,  that  they  would 
ask  themselves  how  it  may  be  practically 
reaUzed.  Humanity  cannot  be  contem- 
plated merely  as  an  abstraction;  it  must 
be  seen  in  some  one.  For  a  time  we  may 
choose  a  favorite  hero,  and  think  that  he 
embodies  all  we  covet  to  behold.  Imper- 
fections appear  in  him,  or  he  does  not  meet 
the  new  cravings  of  our  mind ;  he  is  dis- 
carded, another  is   raised   up,   who   has   a 


IX.]        FOR    THINE  IS    THE  KINGDOM.  167 

shorter  reign.  We  discover  that  we  must 
not  exalt  one  against  another;  each  one 
carries  in  him  the  nature  of  all ;  each  man 
has  that  nature  very  near  to  him.  A  great 
and  wonderful  conviction!  but  if  existing 
alone,  sure  to  turn  into  that  state  of  mind 
which  I  just  now  spoke  of.  Around,  be- 
neath, above,  the  man  finds  no  object  so 
worthy  of  his  dehght,  admiration,  adora- 
tion, as  himself. 

It  is  very  possible,  that  those  who  put 
forth  a  theory  which  justifies,  as  it  seems  to 
us,  this  mournful  result,  are  not  practically 
nearer  to  it  than  we  are,  who  denounce  it. 
God  forbid  that  I  should  exaggerate  their 
danger,  or  our  safety  !  I  believe  that  we  are 
one  and  all  haunted  by  this  tendency  to 
self-glorification  every  day  and  hour  of  our 
lives ;  that  no  religious  systems,  no  religious 
practices,  are  a  protection  against  it;  nay, 
will,  if  we  trust  in  them,  infalUbly  lead  us 
into  it.  It  signifies  not  under  what  pretext, 
philosophical,  political,  theological,  we  build 
altars  to  ourselves;  the  worship  is  in  all 
cases  equally  accursed.  To  throw  down 
these  altars,  to  destroy  the  high  places  in 
which  men  are  burning  incense  to  divinities 
that  will  prove  at  last  to  be  fouler  than  Be- 


168         FOR   THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.     [Serm. 

lial  or  Molocli ;  this  must  be  our  work. 
But  if  we  have  commenced  this  process, 
where  it  always  should  commence,  in  our 
own  hearts,  we  shall  know  that  we  can  only 
drive  out  the  false  by  turning  to  the  true. 
It  is  only  God  who  can  break  the  yoke  of 
the  tyrants  under  whom  we  have  fallen 
from  forgetfuhiess  of  Him. 

Therefore  I  have  desired  that  we  should 
meditate  upon  the  prayer  of  our  childhood, 
in  which  lies,  I  believe,  the  charm  against 
all  that  has  assaulted  us  in  our  manhood. 
Within  the  few  weeks  that  we  have  been 
considering  it,  as  many  events  have  been 
passing  before  us  as  might  fill  many  centu- 
ries ;  it  has  seemed  to  meet  them  all ;  to  be 
the  best  and  fullest  language  in  which  we 
can  express  our  fears,  hopes,  longings,  for 
ourselves,  our  nation,  the  world.  We  have 
not  found  that  the  wants  and  sorrows  of 
Humanity  were  forgotten  in  it,  because  it 
begins  from  a  higher  ground,  because  it 
starts  from  a  Father,  because  it  acknowl- 
edges all  the  highest  and  lowest  blessings  as 
proceeding  from  Him.  If  we  believe  that 
this  Father  beholds  Humanity  created,  re- 
deemed, glorified,  in  his  beloved  Son  ;  if  we 
believe  that  in  that  Son  we  may  behold  it 


rx.]  FOR   THINE  IS   THE  KINGDOM.         169 

and  behold  Him ;  that  being  members  of 
his  body  we  may  see  Christ  in  each  and 
Christ  in  all ;  we  cannot  think  less  nobly  of 
our  kind  than  those  do  who  shut  their  eyes 
to  the  facts  of  its  corruption  and  misery,  or 
who  will  not  acknowledge  that  this  corrup- 
tion comes  from  our  refusal  to  retain  God 
in  our  knowledge.  If  we  believe  that  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  and 
Son,  is  given  to  us  that  we  may  be  united 
to  each  other,  that  we  may  be  fitted  for  all 
knowledge  and  all  love,  we  cannot  have  less 
noble  anticipations  of  that  for  which  man  is 
destined  than  those  who  speak  most  loudly 
of  his  emancipation  from  all  thralldom,  and 
of  his  infinite  capacities.  But  what  we  de- 
sire for  ourselves  and  for  our  race,  —  the 
greatest  redemption  we  can  dream  of,  —  is 
gathered  up  in  the  words,  *'  Thine  is  the 
glory."  Self -willing,  self-seeking,  self -glo- 
rying —  here  is  the  curse  :  no  shackles  re- 
main when  these  are  gone  ;  nothing  can  be 
wanting  when  the  spirit  sees  itself,  loses  it- 
self in  Him  who  is  Light,  and  in  whom  is 
no  darkness  at  all.  In  these  words  there- 
fore we  see  the  ground  and  consummation 
of  our  prayer ;  they  show  how  prayer  be- 
gins and  ends  in  Sacrifice  and  Adoration. 


170      FOR  THINE  IS  THE  KINGDOM     [Serm.  IX. 

They  teach  us  how  Prayer,  which  we  might 
fancy  was  derived  from  the  wants  of  an  im- 
perfect, suffering  creature,  belongs  equally 
to  the  redeemed  and  perfected.  In  these 
the  craving  for  independence  has  ceased ; 
they  are  content  to  ask  and  to  receive. 
But  their  desire  of  knowledge  and  love 
never  ceases.  They  have  awaked  up  after 
his  hkeness,  and  are  satisfied  with  it ;  but 
the  thought,  "Thine  is  the  glory,"  opens 
to  them  a  vision  which  must  become  wider 
and  brighter  forever  and  ever.     Amen. 


Theoloq.cal  Seminary 


f¥8T2  0TaA6  6230 


DATE  DUE 


